PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY, Va. – As costs in construction continue to climb due to rising prices and shipping delays, one Central Virginia contractor is facing another hardship after supplies were stolen from his construction site.
"I love what I do but there's a lot of challenges in it and thieves just make it hard,” Ross Bauschatz with Craftech Homes said. “I can't stand a thief."
Bauschatz said a security camera captured a white pickup truck pull onto his job site Wednesday evening.
"A stack of 2x4s studs over there, they took 200... Those are right around $6 a piece right now," Bauschatz said.
Then they went to the back of the house, which is under construction, and took sheets of OSB, which is a engineered panel similar to plywood.
"They took an undetermined number of sheets off that," Bauschatz said.
Then the thief left, but Bauschatz, said he got two “very good pictures of the truck."
The contractor said the images show a white, standard cab, four-wheel-drive Ford F-150 pickup.
“It looks like something probably 2008-2010 year model," Bauschatz noted.
The thief left, but returned to the scene of the crime about an hour later.
"The camera was secured approximately 20 feet in the air. It was inside a steel security box with a steel cable around the tree," Bauschatz explained.
But removing the camera did not stop the GPS from functioning. In fact, it created another mystery.
"Right now we’re in Prince George County near the intersection of West Quaker Road and Route 156,” Bauschatz said. “The camera pinged at the Wawa off of Hull Street near the Applebee's on Hull Street."
That is about 25 miles away in Chesterfield County.
"I searched everywhere I could look on that property — every trash can, I checked the dumpster," Bauschatz said.
While he did not find the camera, Bauschatz hopes the surveillance images will help police identify the thief.
If you have any information about the white pickup truck or the theft of the building supplies, call Prince George County Crime Solvers at 804-733-2777.
This is a developing story, so anyone with more information can email newstips@wtvr.com to send a tip.
