SOUTHWEST RANCHES, Fla. – Police are searching for a group of thieves who stole expensive landscaping equipment last week in Southwest Ranches.
Authorities said the thieves jumped the fence of a nursery before cutting off the fence's padlocks. They got away with about $100,000 worth of machinery.
Kendly Pierre, who has been in the nursery business for 17 years, said he has never had a setback like this.
"They took a truck, a skid-steer loader, a trailer, a Kubota," he said.
Pierre, the owner of Real Green Nursery, did not want to show his face on camera, but he gladly showed Local 10 News reporter Todd Tongen the faces of two of the thieves caught on surveillance cameras.
He said they took their time, hot-wired his Ford F-350 and stole a trailer to load up the rest of the machinery.
They drove off with the haul, unloaded the merchandise and returned for more, Pierre said.
"I was shocked," Pierre said. "I couldn't believe they were that bold (and that) they took that kind of chance."
The thieves spent about 2 1/2 hours on the property, much of that time trying to steal a new $75,000 loader, but Pierre had it blocked in with a larger tractor. He hopes someone will recognize the four or five men who ripped him off.
Pierre said he realizes that he might not get his equipment back, but he said that is not going to stop him from finding the group who stole the hard-earned tools of his trade.
"I am going to work as hard as I can to make sure they get caught so they don't do it to the next person, because fellow landscapers, nursery men and farmers -- we work hard for what we have," Pierre said.
Pierre said a friend of his who also owns a nursery about a mile from his was hit two weeks ago.
Anyone with information about the thefts is asked to call Davie police or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.