SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
$30K tractor stolen from veterans building dream house
Aug 17, 2018, 5:34 PM
(Nellie Buir/Free Images)
(Nellie Buir/Free Images)
Two married veterans felt like they’d won the lottery when they scored an idyllic, rural tract of property near Roy for their dream house.
“We lucked out and got a 20-acre lot,” Joshua Olsen told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson. “We’re involved in every bit of the house build so far, and we’re actually going to end up doing a lot of the work ourselves on it.”
Olsen served in the Air Force, while his wife was in the Army. The two plan to build a home for themselves, their four children, and their dog.
As part of the building process, the couple just bought a $30,000 orange Kubota tractor. On Tuesday, however — after having used the tractor for only five hours — Joshua walked out on the property to find the brand-new tractor stolen.
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“I got to the property and went to finish up the backfilling and looked around where I had parked it, which was kind of to the side and out of sight, and it was just gone … it was completely gone,” he said.
The key was not inside the tractor, so the thief would likely have taken it out via trailer, Olsen said. Because the gated area that the family’s land sits in requires a key code to enter, Olsen surmises that a neighbor accidentally let the thief in, or the person found a broken gate.
“It’s not on any main roads … to get inside the area alone, it’s quite a feat,” he said.
Now the Olsen family finds their journey to their dream home facing yet another setback.
“It’s just another hurdle that we’ve had with this property,” he said. “It’s been two-and-a-half years in the making, and we finally are getting to the point where it’s taking shape, and then this happens and delays it even further.”
Luckily, Olsen had insurance for the tractor. Still, the experience of having the tractor stolen and seeing firsthand the extent of crime in even the most rural areas of the Puget Sound has been disheartening for the Olsens and their children.
“It takes a lot of the joy out of doing this as a family,” Olsen said. “I did most of the work myself, clearing land and doing this stuff, and just to have [this happen] kick[s] me when I’m down.”
