The Manning Police Department is currently seeking the public's help in locating suspects allegedly using a Penske truck in the attempt to burglarize several local businesses.
Inv. Rick Elms said Tuesday that suspects first parked the truck on the side of Sparrow and Kennedy in mid-March, attempting to remove tractors already on a trailer, but were allegedly scared off by traffic.
According to reports from the Manning Police Department, the suspects pulled up to the business about 9:05 p.m., backed up to a tractor and trailer display and then removed logs from the wooden fence around the display as if he were going to hook to the trailer with the tractor on it.
Company Manager Dan Darby showed police surveillance video, which showed a black adult male attempting the theft.
It was the third time since December 2016 that someone had attempted theft at the business. In the first incident, the dealership lost a $23,000 riding lawn mower in the early morning hours of Feb. 9.
Surveillance video at Sparrow and Kennedy Tractor Company at 305 E. Boyce St. in Manning captured video of the alleged thief spending nearly 45 minutes inside the company’s fence before taking a Z997R mower, one of the most expensive commercial mowers sold by the company.
The company suffered another break-in Dec. 10, 2016, after someone cut the fence in the same spot and taking a John Deere model Z mower valued at $5,000
A Manning Police officer, according to the report, allegedly found a gold and white Cub Cadet lawn mower in the parking lot near Corner Diner, a restaurant across the street from the tractor company.
“The mower had an orange ratchet strap around it that appeared to have been cut,” the report reads.
Police responded to the scene and noticed the front gate of Sparrow and Kennedy to be open. Reports indicate that the company manager told police that someone had cut the fence and taken the $23,000 mower.
Another reports shows that the Manning Police Department was investigating a trailer and mower reported stolen the same day as the tractor company break-in from the Manning Hampton Inn, about two miles away from Sparrow and Kennedy and on the same highway.
Tennessee resident George Hale, the complainant in that report, said the trailer had a Cub Cadet lawn mower on it which he uses to mow his Greeleyville property. Hale later confirmed the mower found near Corner Diner was the one he reported missing.
Reports thus indicate that the suspect took the trailer and mower from Hampton Inn, drove to the diner and unloaded the Cub Cadet mower and then walked across the street, cut the 7-foot chain-link fence and loaded the mower on the trailer.
Police reports indicate that the suspect took nearly an hour deciding which mower to steal. Dan Darby, the company’s manager, told police that the suspect sat on eight of them.
He used large boards from inside the business – using unlocked doors – to craft a makeshift ramp to move the mower across a ditch. The December incident was not caught on camera.
Darby said he was flummoxed by the suspect’s lackadaisical approach to the incident.
“Someone who goes to Hampton Inn, takes someone else’s trailer and mower, then comes here, takes more than 45 minutes trying out other tractors, coming back and forth, and then dropping off the mower to take our mower, they don’t really seem to care about anything,” he said. “They weren’t extremely concerned about getting caught, especially when after he took the commercial mower, he came back with a flashlight to look for more. I guess he couldn’t fit anything else on the trailer.”
Elms said Tuesday that police are unsure if the three incidents are related. He said that the department believes the Penske truck could also be involved in similar theft attempts in Darlington County.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Manning Police Department at (803) 435-8859.
