A snowmobile trailer containing two snow machines was damaged early Monday morning when thieves apparently connected the trailer’s safety chains to a vehicle and jerked it free from the tree it was chained to and stole it.
WESTFIELD – A city man is aggressively responding to the theft of his two snowmobiles and their trailer Monday and has offered a reward for information regarding their theft in an effort to stop the perpetrators from repeating their crimes.
“I know I’ll never see those sleds again,” said John Hoyt of Whitaker Road and went on to say that he believes that the thieves attempted to steal a snowmobile and trailer from a neighbor before they successfully stole his two snow machines and the trailer they were on.
City police report that Hoyt called the emergency dispatcher at 4:58 a.m. Monday to report the crime and Officer Francis Gaulin was dispatched to investigate.
Gaulin reports that Hoyt said that his two snowmobiles – a 1999 Red Polaris 440 and a 2000 Artic Cat Bearcat – had been stored on a trailer which had been chained to a tree in his yard.
In a subsequent telephone interview, Hoyt said that both machines were in “mint” condition and, although the trailer was later recovered abandoned in Connecticut, the snow sleds were not found.
He said that the trailer had been “beat all to hell” and said it was damaged when the thieves apparently backed a vehicle to the trailer and, since the tow hitch had been secured, hooked up to the safety chains and dragged the trailer away from the tree, breaking the bar the chain had been looped around.
Two gleaming snow machines can be seen inside a trailer which was stolen early Monday morning from a Whitaker Road address. The trailer was subsequently found abandoned in Connecticut but the snowmobiles have not been recovered.
Hoyt said that he alerted his neighbors to the crime in the neighborhood and said that one of his Sackett Street neighbors reported that his snowmobile and trailer had been tampered with.
The other man said, Hoyt reports, that footprints were found around the trailer where he keeps his snowmobile and the plastic covering he had installed to protect the tow ball of his trailer hitch had been removed.
The man told Hoyt that he believes the intruders fled when his security lights were triggered.
The case has been assigned to Det. Anthony Tsatsos who said that his investigation is progressing.
Anyone with information about either incident should call the Detective Bureau at 572-6400.
