The Victim: Nathan McConnell
The Crime: Car and trailer theft
Date: Saturday, Feb. 12
Time: Between 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.
Location: 10300 block of Country Club
It was no magic trick — the truck and trailer vanished.
Nathan McConnell enjoys the outdoors — especially his land in northern Arkansas, where his RV sits near the Mulberry River, deep in a national forest. He loves the fresh air and greenery near the river, relaxing and hanging out with friends and family. McConnell keeps his 2000 Ford F-350 and flatbed trailer at his Bel Air Estates home for transporting anything he might need to his “home away from home.”
On the morning of Feb. 12, the truck and trailer were parked right in front of his home. But when McConnell went outside around 9:30 a.m., they had completely disappeared. The sight left him with a sick feeling.
“You start hyperventilating and call 911,” McConnell says.
After the theft, McConnell made some attempts to track down the truck and trailer via the Internet.
“I put it on Craigslist in Dallas, and Lubbock, and all over. It was a pretty unusual flatbed,” he says of his efforts. “The police basically said someone had to pull over [the stolen truck] and run the license plate to get it back.”
McConnell also was victimized at his home a few years ago.
“I had someone get into the box in the back of my truck, but I didn’t even know it,” he says. “The police came by later and said they had caught them down the street, and gave me my stuff back. They had just been going through the neighborhood stealing things.”
As for getting his truck and trailer back, he was not very confident that it would happen, and replacing them would cost him.
“I had only liability insurance on them, so that really sucked.”
Fortunately, his luck changed. Two weeks later, the truck was recovered on a residential street in Oak Cliff. Some storage boxes, light fixtures, a shower kit, antique band saw and pressure washer were missing. The truck’s driver’s side lock and ignition had been damaged — police say a skilled thief can use a screwdriver and steal a car in 30 seconds.
While the trailer still has not been recovered, McConnell was pleased to retrieve his truck from the auto pound.
“I feel fortunate with regards to the truck as there was an F350 sitting near [another] guy’s car that was stripped, and that was the condition I thought my truck would turn up in if it was still in the country,” he says.
Dallas Police Lt. Mackie D. Ham of the Northeast Patrol Division says police are still looking for the trailer.
“If a trailer is being stored, I would recommend that it be in a driveway rather than the street. You can also block the trailer with a vehicle. Also, there are locks sold that fit around the hitch part of the trailer where it actually attaches to the ball. If a trailer has one of these locks, it will make it much more difficult to steal. There are also locks for the wheels.”
