Dekalb County Theft
$215K in Equipment Vanishes from Illinois Solar Farm And the Suspect Is Caught Fast
Solar farms are popping up across rural America, and it turns out their construction sites are becoming an increasingly popular target for thieves. The latest example: a construction site in Kingston Township, DeKalb County, Illinois, where more than $215,000 worth of tools and equipment disappeared overnight.
What happened
Deputies were called to the site near Route 72 and Pleasant Hill Road, between Kingston and Genoa, early on the morning of July 29 after workers discovered a trailer had been broken into overnight. Whoever did it made off with a serious haul of tools and machinery. Investigators didn’t waste time. A tip pointed detectives to a home in Rockford, and by that afternoon, deputies — with help from Rockford police — had executed a search warrant at the address. They recovered the stolen equipment and took two people into custody.
Rick Thompson, 63, of Rockford, has since been charged with felony theft in connection with the case. Court records now put the total value of the stolen equipment at more than $215,000 — well above the roughly $120,000 initial estimate reported in the immediate aftermath of the burglary.
The fast turnaround here — from a 7 a.m. burglary report to an afternoon arrest — shows how quickly a solid GPS tracker tip can crack these cases. But the rising dollar figures also suggest that as solar buildout accelerates, so does the incentive for theft. Expect more construction sites, solar and otherwise, to start investing in better lighting, cameras, and quality trackers like we at GPS and Track provide as a result.
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