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Posted on Tue, Feb 12, 2013 : 5:59 a.m.

Police video shows men stealing maintenance truck in Ann Arbor

By Kyle Feldscher

Ann Arbor police have released a video of two men stealing a maintenance truck from Arrowwood Hills Cooperative Housing last month as they continue to search for the suspects.

Detective Chris Fitzpatrick, the lead investigator on the case, released the video to AnnArbor.com. The video shows two men pulling into the complex early on Jan. 8 in a black pickup truck. After sitting in the truck for about two minutes, the two men move to the back of the building to a parking lot where three trucks are sitting.

A man in a white jacket works to hot-wire the maintenance truck, while a man in a black jacket scrapes frost off the windshield, allowing for a quick escape. After a few minutes, the truck is started, and the man in the black jacket hops in and drives off.

The man in the white jacket sprints back to the black pickup and both trucks pull out of the complex.

The theft took place after 3 a.m. Jan. 8 in the 2500 block of Arrowwood Trail. It wasn’t until workers returned to the business later that morning that the truck was reported stolen.

That same night, a similar truck was stolen from the Willowtree Apartments. The theft occurred between 5 p.m. Jan. 7 and 8 am. Jan. 8. It’s unknown if the two incidents were related.

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The truck the men were driving is the truck in the middle left of the frame.

Courtesy of Ann Arbor police

The truck belonging to Arrowwood Hills in a red 2005 Ford Super Duty. There’s silver tape on part of the tailgate, one of the taillights is cracked and covered with tape and there is damage to the rear driver’s side. The snowplow on the front of the truck and the tires were both new.

The resident manager told AnnArbor.com the loss of the truck was a major inconvenience for the cooperative.

The video does not provide a clear view of the men's faces. They appear to both be white men, of average height and build. One is wearing a black jacket with a black hat, while the other is wearing a white jacket with the hood up.

The Washtenaw Area Auto Theft team (WAAT) is assisting the Ann Arbor police with the investigation, Fitzpatrick said.

Anyone with information on the theft is encouraged to call Fitzpatrick at 734-794-6930 ext. 49324, WAAT at 734-994-8881 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK UP (773-2587).


View 2500 Arrowwood Trail in a larger map

Kyle Feldscher covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.

Comments

HONDO

Tue, Feb 12, 2013 : 9 p.m.

Im sure the fat one is proud of his coat, chances are hes still wearing it daily..... They dont look to experienced lets end their attempt fast!!!

anti-thug

Tue, Feb 12, 2013 : 10:42 p.m.

maybe they are gangster form out town....gangs steal cars.

UpperDecker

Tue, Feb 12, 2013 : 5:11 p.m.

Took them long enough, they appear to be rookies in the car theft game.

justcurious

Tue, Feb 12, 2013 : 4:19 p.m.

Why is it against moderation rules to say what you thought the race of one of the thief's is? Not sure what the problem was of saying that.

Kyle Feldscher

Tue, Feb 12, 2013 : 4:29 p.m.

JC- It actually says in the story that they appear to be white men. I don't know why your comment was deleted (out of my purview), but that description is in the story.

music to my ear

Tue, Feb 12, 2013 : 3:31 p.m.

BUSTED

anti-thug

Tue, Feb 12, 2013 : 10:41 p.m.

only if we could get a face shut! its kind strange that Arrowwood had it filmed since the only camera that are visible are the once in back of the complex near the woods. anyway im not paying for truck if plan raise rent because this... I'm not going into conspiracy theory ,it just seems like the camera are not their , so they all of sudden come up with camera footage and they did take so long to release it?

Homeland Conspiracy

Tue, Feb 12, 2013 : 3:52 p.m.

Not!

anti-thug

Tue, Feb 12, 2013 : 3:30 p.m.

IM more shocked at them having Cameras hidden so well haha

Arboriginal

Tue, Feb 12, 2013 : 3:27 p.m.

Too bad Mr. T wasn't passed out sleeping in the cab of the truck.

anti-thug

Tue, Feb 12, 2013 : 3:24 p.m.

since when did they get cameras ?

LXIX

Tue, Feb 12, 2013 : 2:37 p.m.

Looked like the skinny guy was stoned, lazy, or very tired. More likely frozen with fear. Couldn't even scrape the windshield to see much out of - for himself. The little fat balding guy new what he was doing and by his casual entry into the truck didn't seem too concerned about any alarm. If the skinny guy drove the pair in, why did he not drive "his" original truck back and let the fat guy drive the stolen prize he worked so hard for? The fat guy even raised the plow for the skinny guy as if he might not. Probably the fat guy was working for the skinny guy or had a record and was minimizing the jail risk if either one of them got caught. The skinny guy looked like a newbie. 1. How did the fat guy know there was no truck alarm? 2. Why didn't the fat guy drive the stolen truck? 3. Why didn't the skinny guy scrape the windshield better? Not going very far?

regularjoe

Tue, Feb 12, 2013 : 1:32 p.m.

The probably were after the snow plow. Plows are $3,500 to $5,000 new and easily sold on craigslist for $2500+. The truck is most likely a burned shell in Detroit somewhere.

Bobby

Tue, Feb 12, 2013 : 2:28 p.m.

My thoughts exactly, the shell of the truck may be found closer, but anything related to your scenario wont be surprising.

Fordie

Tue, Feb 12, 2013 : 1:15 p.m.

I'm pretty sure most people could have had that windshield completely scraped in about 1/3 the time it took him.

Homeland Conspiracy

Tue, Feb 12, 2013 : 3:52 p.m.

Looks like he was scraping the windshield was a credit card

justcurious

Tue, Feb 12, 2013 : 1:42 p.m.

They certainly didn't seem like they were nervous about being caught did they? Very casual. I'm not sure what good the cameras are...especially since the pictures were released over a month after the crime.