How Does Someone Steal a Skid Steer?

This is one of those police blotter items that merits just a little explanation.

Normally, Geneva Patch will report the who, what, where, when of the police reports and go on to the next. But when the report mentions that a CAT Skid Steer model 252B was stolen, you've got to ask (a) What the heck is a CAT Skid Steer model 252? and (b) If it is what I think it is, how does someone steal it?

Your basic 252 is a manly vehicle, the kind of equipment that would make the Tim Allen character on the old Home Improvement TV show do that bark/grunt thing that made him famous.

The CAT Skid Steer is a 7,832 pound, 73 horsepower bright yellow machine that is "designed, built and backed by Caterpillar® to deliver exceptional performance and versatility, ease of operation, serviceability and customer support," according to goldcoasthilift.com.

Someone took a CAT Skid Steer model 252B, valued at $25,000 and an adapter fork for a CAT Skid Steer Model DF4200 valued at $1,200 from T. Manning Concrete from a construction site at 2211 Innovation Drive, sometime between Sept. 24 and Sept. 27, reports said.

The site is the initial construction shell of a building owned by Roquette America, the report said. The fork is used on a skid steer that also was reported stolen from the site.

Geneva police Cmdr. Julie Nash said this was not a case in which the keys were left in the vehicle. A lot of crimes involving vehicle thefts or break-ins happen when owners leave keys in cars or unlocked doors and visible GPS that make it easy for the bad guy or bad gal to commit an offense.

"This is not one of those crimes of opportunity," Nash said.

Nash declined to speculate how someone gets away with something that big, but it isn't something that happens every day. 

To get an idea of what a vehicle like this looks and sounds like, you can check out this video on YouTube.