Over $40K in tools stolen from Ocean Springs family-owned business

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. (WXXV) — Cambium Tree Care and Preservation on Bienville Boulevard is hoping to get justice after over $40,000 worth of tools were stolen from their property overnight.

The Ocean Springs Police Department says that 88 tree cutting tools, including commercial-grade Stihl saws and hydraulic saws were taken from inside multiple trucks at the business between the hours of midnight and 4 a.m. on Monday.

“We just want justice for out small, family-owned business. This is a big deal to us,” said Libbi Miller, Operations Manager at Cambium Tree Care. “It’s not just the business owners that its affecting, it’s affecting all of our employees and their families as well. So, the best we could hope is that we maybe get some of our equipment back, and that maybe whoever is responsible for this is caught and they’re able to serve justice for what they’ve taken from us.”

The suspect or multiple suspects cut through an area of chain link fence surrounding the property. They then rolled the fence and climbed through. Once the suspect got through the fence, they climbed under a line of  trucks to stay out of sight. Marks and shoe prints were left behind underneath the work trucks.

It’s unclear if there were multiple people involved or just the one, but the suspect, who was briefly caught on camera, was able to avoid detection for the majority of the time they were on the property.

As for the stolen equipment, each piece does have identifying markings from the business including “CT” and “BT” engravings.

“Those larger saws are upwards of $2,500 or more, and multiple of those were stolen, to include some of these reliable pole saws. These things are hydraulic. They’re very unique. You can’t buy them from your local vendor, so for someone to try to sell one of these, it’s going to raise a lot of red flags,” said Ocean Springs Detective Dimitrius Cruz. “We have serial numbers. We have three different data bases, to include a commercial data base, we are utilizing at this time, and if anybody were to try to sell these items, and or even repair these items, they’re going to be listed as stolen. So, it’s going to be very difficult for you to even sell or repair these items at this point. We’ve crossed all of our T’s on that section.”

The Ocean Springs Police Department says that if you have any information, call the department at 228-875-2211 or Crime Stoppers.