Stolen log splitter found
By Jack Stephens
Published in News on January 11, 2006 1:49 PM
FREMONT -- A Fremont couple got good news this week, just when they thought there wasn't any.
Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy Dail of Vance Street had reported the theft of their new log splitter on Friday to Fremont police. It had been locked in their yard but was stolen between 5 and 6 a.m.
"We had bought it in November and had used it only once," Rose Ann Dail said Tuesday.
Mrs. Dail said the log splitter had cost $1,200 and their insurance would pay them only about $400.
But two days later the Dails got good news. An elderly couple that owns property on Branch Street but lives elsewhere checked their shed Sunday and discovered that the lock had been tampered with. When the door was opened, the log splitter was inside, where it had been dumped by the thieves, either in haste to get away or in a plan to retrieve it later.
Mrs. Ann Lewis, who lives in Philadelphia, then called the Fremont Police Department about the discovery. Officer Edward Miller went to the shed and then informed his supervisor, Sgt. Wayne Schwark, about the log splitter.
Schwark then contacted the Dails and told them that their property had been found.
No one has been arrested for the larceny, but police say they have leads and are following up on information they have received.
Mrs. Dail called the experience traumatic and added, "We're so grateful, thanks to Mrs. Lewis and the Fremont Police Department."