More than $100,000 worth of items taken from Ivor

By Gwen Albers

Suffolk News-Herald

It was almost impossible to believe.

When Curtis Thomas learned that someone had stolen $100,000 worth of heavy equipment from a storage site off Bell Road in Ivor, he could not help but feel numb.

“Nothing was left behind,” said Thomas, the owner of BCM Landworks in Virginia Beach. (“It’s amazing considering) the volume of equipment being moved and just the nerve of them even to do it.”

None of the equipment, including a backhoe valued at $20,000, a bulldozer worth $14,750 and dump truck valued at $9,000, was insured, he said.

The theft was reported to the Southampton County Sheriff’s Office last week. It’s believed the theft occurred sometime after May 1.

It’s also believed a large wrecker or similar piece of equipment was used to steal the equipment, said Major Gene Drewery of the Southampton County Sheriff’s Department. There are no suspects.

Thomas believes it took two to three days to steal the equipment and that the theft occurred around July 9. The equipment was stored in the woods 300 feet off the road along a tree line, Thomas said.

“The neighbor next door saw traffic — trucks were coming and going,” Thomas said. “He keeps a check on the place and walks in the evening and saw that all of the equipment was gone.”

He assumed the company had moved it, he said.

Some of the equipment stolen included:

• JCB Backhoe JCB 214 valued at $20,000; serial number is 2 SLP2140CSE0430875.
• A 1986 blue Volkswagen Cabriolet valued at $1,200 and 1990 Mercury valued at $750
• Two Beck tri-axle trailers valued at $3,000; serial numbers are 44BH62023KL004389 and 44B462030SL005425
• Equipment truck with aluminum storage compartments valued at $13,000
• 1990 Ford Super Duty truck; serial number is 2FDLF47M9LCB30170
• Asphalt paver valued at $ 3,500, serial number is SALSCO 0005004 98102300050040096
• Ford dump truck L-8000 valued at $ 9,000, serial number is 1FTXR82A9HXA39225
• 1987 Mitsubishi bulldozer valued $14,750, serial number is BD2G 2B500011
• Meyers 10-foot snowplow blade valued at $2,300
• Caterpillar 72-inch dirt buckets valued at $1,400
• Hydraulic mower head valued at $ 4,800

Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 757-653-2100 or the Southampton Crime Line at 757-653-2900.