Concrete company owner fed up after weekend theft

OSCEOLA, Ind. –

The owner of John Ward Concrete Company says he’s fed up after getting hit by thieves over the weekend.

“That’s where they stole that component, right next to that black box,” said owner John Ward, pointing to the cement silo on his business’s property.

It was Saturday morning when Ward says crews at the concrete company found out the motor to this ready-mix plant was missing.

“It hindered our ability to make cement Saturday morning,” said Ward, who said they spent a few hours that morning getting back on their feet. And until the new motor comes in, the theft is leaving his employees with more work.

“Until we get this part, we have to operate the valve on the cement silo with a pipe wrench by hand so we can manually open and close the silo,” said Ward.

And he says it’s not the first time something like this has happened.

“We’re very frustrated with people coming here and sabotaging and damaging our equipment,” he said.

Ward has security cameras surrounding his business and property. But the cameras only show a foggy image during the time between Friday night and Saturday morning, when Ward says the theft happened. So he’s taking a different approach to finding who took that motor.

“We’re offering a $10,000 reward leading to the arrest and conviction of the person that stole the parts from our plant,” he said.

That’s not the only price he’s paying. The motor costs $1,300 to replace. Plus, Ward is upgrading his cameras to have clearer night vision, and is adding more security lighting.

“The security system quote was $6,000 and to put up the extra parking lot lighting, we’ll spend about $10,000 doing that,” said Ward.

He says that’s a price he’s willing to pay to make sure his customers get taken care of.

“We have employees and people here that are just trying to make a living,” he said. “We’re all part of the community. We don’t want people stealing from us.”

Ward filed a police report with Osceola police.

Osceola police are urging anyone who ever sees anything suspicious to not hesitate to call law enforcement.