Image via US Forest Service
People sometimes steal the strangest things, like a historic Half-track military vehicle taken from a national forest in Utah. But what’s even stranger is the explanation for its sudden return two months after it was stolen, the thief claiming to believe he didn’t know he was stealing anything.
A python was found abandoned in a stolen Cadillac used in a street takeover.
As they say, truth is often stranger than fiction and this story seems to fall in line with that claim. According to an official press release from the US Forest Service, the unnamed thief and his attorney contacted the federal agency about returning the Half-track.
That man told officials he intended to restore the historical vehicle, nothing more, and that he thought it was considered abandoned property. The vehicle was being kept in Dixie National Forest in late June when it suddenly went missing.
The Half-track is a military transport vehicle used in WWII. In the late 1950s it was used at a log mill in southern Utah. Later it was acquired by the US Forest Service by default after staying in the national forest for so long and has been kept in the Boulder Mountain Row Lakes area in the Dixie National Forest.
Forest Service Special Agent Edwin Outlaw credited outreach to the public through the media as well as the tip line for the missing Half-track, saying both had “a big influence on the outcome.”
After putting out the word about a white Dodge Ram 2500 pulling a gooseneck trailer with the Half-track on it, with the word put out via TV, social media, radio, and in print, tips came pouring in from counties in the area.
Now that the Half-track has been recovered, the plan is to keep it in the same location where it was stored before. But this time it will be secured through undisclosed means to prevent anyone else from taking it.
Images via US Forest Service
