ORANGE PARK, Fla. \u2014 A small asphalt paving business is scrambling after a nearly $300,000 dump truck was stolen earlier this week from a hotel parking lot in Orange Park, disrupting work schedules and putting employees\u2019 livelihoods at risk.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s according to Daniel Richard, a project manager and foreman with Driveway Experts of Florida.<\/p>\n
Richard said the truck was parked overnight at the Days Inn, next to other heavy equipment, while one of the company\u2019s drivers was staying at the hotel.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a lack of a better term, they MacGyver\u2019d it,\u201d Richard said, describing how the theft unfolded.<\/p>\n
Surveillance video from the hotel shows part of how the blue dump truck was taken from the parking lot. Richard said whoever stole it appeared to know exactly what they were doing.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cOur driver was staying there,\u201d Richard said.<\/p>\n Richard said the Jacksonville-based company\u2019s owner was out of town at the time of the theft. After the truck was taken, Richard had just finished laying asphalt at a job site when he learned what happened.<\/p>\n \u201cWith a $300,000 truck, you could strip it for parts, or you could ship it off overseas,\u201d Richard said. \u201cThere are people who do this pretty regularly who are supposedly pretty good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n The case has drawn wider attention after Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook shared video of the theft on social media. Richard said the thieves likely forced entry and disabled security measures.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m guessing they jimmy\u2019d the lock and did something with the ignition switch,\u201d Richard said. \u201cThey ditched the tracking device we had through our insurance company and sent us on a wild goose chase that wasn\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n Richard said the theft is not an isolated case and appears to be part of a broader trend of heavy equipment thefts across Florida. <\/p>\n Edward Gallagher, who operates the Jacksonville office for the business, pointed to other reports statewide, including a case in Tampa where a man was accused of stealing eight dump trucks valued at more than $1 million.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n The impact on the company has been immediate. <\/p>\n Gallagher said Driveway Experts of Florida employs about 26 people, many of whom rely on steady work to support their families.<\/p>\n With one of their main trucks gone, Richard said the company is now about 50 jobs behind schedule and struggling to keep up with demand.<\/p>\n \u201cI wish people wouldn\u2019t take things that don\u2019t belong to them and put guys out of work,\u201d Richard said. \u201cWe\u2019ve all got families to feed and provide for. You show up and you don\u2019t have your equipment. It\u2019s devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n Richard said the situation could have been far worse if thieves had taken more than one vehicle.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is our other truck that was parked next to it in the video,\u201d Richard said. \u201cLuckily they didn\u2019t get both of them. We\u2019d have been really bad off then.\u201d<\/p>\n Gallagher is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the return of the stolen dump truck. He said anyone with information can report tips anonymously.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE PARK, Fla. \u2014 A small asphalt paving business is scrambling after a nearly $300,000 dump truck was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9481,63768,63766,63767,1292,57586,116,118,117,634,63765,63769,115,2631,135,63770],"class_list":{"0":"post-129213","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-clay_county","9":"tag-daniel_richard","10":"tag-days_inn","11":"tag-driveway_experts_of_florida","12":"tag-facebook","13":"tag-jack_jonah_gavino","14":"tag-jacksonville","15":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","16":"tag-jacksonville-news","17":"tag-local","18":"tag-macgyvered","19":"tag-michelle_cook","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-sheriff","22":"tag-tampa","23":"tag-yonah_gavvino"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}