18 Ton Bulldozer Hijacked in Broad Daylight

“OK, the dozer’s gone… They don’t disappear. You can’t hide it in your backyard. You can’t throw it in a truck,” said yard manager Brian Crowe.

Like stealing an elephant from the zoo and riding it out the front gate, crooks commandeered an 18-ton bulldozer from a Lakeside trucking company in broad daylight and drove it off the premises, all under the lens of surveillance cameras.

Leaving fresh tracks on its way out, Crow exclaimed that “I never saw anything like that before… It’s crazy, can’t fathom how people can just do that.” ABC 10 News reported that surveillance video from a nearby business recorded the bulldozer, a D6 Caterpillar tractor, being nonchalantly loaded onto a semi and then being driven away.

“They went through a lot of work and pretty … brazen,” Crow asserted. “They came underneath the bridge, moved some boulders here with the dozer, up and over, made a turn here and ride on out,” said Crow.

Chances are good that the thieves hotwired the bulldozer and smuggled it out through the back of the yard. Nevertheless, as ABC 10 reported, they still needed to transport it under a freeway, over a riverbed, dozing boulders and any other obstacle that blocked its path. “It wasn’t nothing for that dozer, you know … 18 tons, it will push a lot of stuff,” the yard manager explained.

“I don’t think it’s the first time they did it,” Crow added. “That equipment’s $300,000. It’s a big piece of equipment.”