Regina RCMP are looking for a thief who took a $360,000 tractor on a joyride and destroyed it.
The 2009 John Deere 9630T, owned by the Lajord Hutterite Colony, was taken from a field 40 kilometres southeast of Regina between Halloween evening and Nov. 2.
It was driven about 25 kilometres through the rural municipality, on roads and in ditches, used to demolish an old barn and then left submerged in water about three kilometres northwest of where it was taken.
“Only the cab was sticking out,” said RM of Lajord reeve Erwin Beite.
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He said the tractor was totalled and he believes someone familiar with the area took it, judging by the trail.
Colony manager Darius Hofer said an insurance adjuster would examine the tractor, but he expected it would be useful only for parts. The tractor first went to the field May 1 and had just 300 hours on it. It was used for seeding and was attached to a grain cart for harvest.
“They were nice enough to unhook the grain cart,” Hofer said.
The person who took the tractor likely wasn’t a novice driver, he added.
“They knew exactly what they were doing because our tractor was locked. They had a John Deere key.”
Also, the tracks made during the joy ride indicate significant speed through the turns.
“I cannot figure out that they didn’t get their heads smashed going through some of the ditches,” Hofer said.
The culprit almost made it back to the original field when the tractor ran into a small washout that contained deep water. There was no way to drive out of it.
“Oh man,” Hofer said of the effort to get it out. “We had to put two of the same tractors on there and a 70 ton winch truck.”
RCMP dusted the tractor cab for fingerprints and gathered other evidence.
The colony is offering an undisclosed reward for information.
Hofer said nothing like this had happened to the colony before, but neighbours have experienced theft.
Beitel said vandalism has become a significant problem in the RM. Anyone with information about the crime should contact Regina RCMP at 306-780-5560 or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.
