Costly vehicles stolen in city

Vehicles, a piece of heavy equipment and a trailer — property with a combined valued of nearly $100,000 — have been reported stolen from separate locations this week in Mount Airy.

There was no indication from city police Wednesday whether the crimes might be related, since each targeted larger-type vehicles or equipment.

This included a Kubota mini-excavator valued at $40,000, which was taken from W.P. Simmons Inc., listed as a concrete burial vault supplier in the 200 block of North South Street.

The excavator is described as an orange KX 121-3ST model.

A white 2001 Ford F-450 truck and a black 2023 Kaufman trailer, valued at $15,000 apiece, also were stolen from W.P. Simmons Inc. The truck was bearing license tag number NW8071, with DB22311 the license number of the trailer.

The other incident occurred at Francis Motors on Carter Street, located off U.S. 52-South near the Big Lots shopping center, where a gray 2005 Ford F-450 tow truck valued at $20,000 was stolen.

No license number was listed for that vehicle.

Both incidents were discovered Monday at the businesses involved, with an unknown party suspected in each case.