Millions of dollars in equipment stolen

Mid-Missouri is no stranger to farm equipment theft.

But KRCG has uncovered a million-dollar farm equipment theft ring that has victims not only across the state but around the country.

Jim Keeven has been dealing with a lot more than his sod farming business lately.

Over the past year, his property has been burglarized twice. Thefts that totaled more than $100,000.

"Its aggravating, knowing someone is coming into your property, stealing your property,” says Keeven.

The bottoms area in South Callaway County has experienced several thefts over recent years and get this- police think it is a ring . One of the largest farm equipment rings Missouri has ever seen. Surveillance video from Keeven's property shows a white truck- and the driver is the prime suspect in the ring.

Detective Jason Yeager with the Morgan County Sheriff's Department has been investigating "Operation Skid Steer" for about two years. He says Keeven is just one of many victims in a million dollar theft ring.

"They have a group of people who travel around, locate equipment, load equipment, remove to another location and it's out of their hands. It's steal by order."

Yeager says a client places an order on a piece of farm equipment like a skid steer tractor or a zero turn lawnmower and then Clinton Eugene “Woody” Woodrome gets his guys to steal it. Yeager suspects Woodrome meets these associates, usually young men, in bars or they have been known to be close family.

It's a lot like car theft, but it seems the criminals are harder to catch and the vehicles harder to recover.

"You can move a tractor a lot easier, sell it a lot easier and chances of it being found again are slim," says Yeager.

Sitting out in a field all day, the public won't come across it ever again. Yeager suspects some of this equipment is being sold possibly at auction.

I wanted to know how auctioneers prevent this from happening.

Bill Gratz is a Jefferson City auctioneer. He says there are checks and balances in his business. "Items such as a tractor or large piece of equipment with a serial number on it, we write down serial numbers so if there ever is a question we have numbers of the items we sold and we have identification of the person who brought the items to us.'

Trailer and farm equipment theft has become a problem too big for Detective Yeager alone. To stop trailer theft, he says he needs “a devoted task force."

Jim Keeven meanwhile, wants to focus on the future.

"We have made some changes to the trucks to disable our trucks so they will not start, installed more cameras," says Keeven.

Keeven tells me it's costly, but in the end, he hopes putting down a little extra green will keep his greens safe.

In August, Governor Jay Nixon expanded a cattle theft task force to include livestock trailers, equipment, and farm chemicals. Agriculture director, Jon Hagler says the "Livestock and Farm Protection Task Force" needs reinforcements.

The group met twice since August and has a third meeting scheduled for late November.

As for Clinton Woodrome, he was arrested earlier this year in Johnson County, along with two other accomplices, a woman though to be a girlfriend and a man in his 20s.

There is an outstanding warrant out for Woodrome's arrest in St. Clair County.

In Mid-Missouri, he is a person of interest in Morgan County thefts and a suspect in Callaway and several other counties.

If you know anything about Clinton Woodrome's whereabouts, call your local law enforcement agency or the Morgan County Sheriff's Departments at 573-378-5481.