Livingston Co. deputies recover stolen dump truck, backhoe, other equipment

LIVINGSTON COUNTY, Ky. (KFVS) - Deputies recovered a stolen dump truck, backhoe, trailer and UTV from a rural property in Tennessee.

According to the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office, they received reports of the two thefts in October 2021.

The first report was of a Freightliner dump truck, a Case backhoe and a pintle hitch equipment trailer stolen from the Livingston County Road Garage.

The second report was of a stolen Polaris UTV that belonged to 5 Star Electric. It was stolen from a job site in Burna, Ky.

Deputies say they caught a break in the case in April 2022 when Deputy Bobby Beeler helped the Union County Sheriff’s Office with tracking a separate UTV theft to the Hampton area.

They identified Warren Lutke as a person of interest in the dump truck theft.

Deputies say Lutke evaded capture and a manhunt took place in the north end of Livingston County for several days in October 2022.

Lutke was arrested in Tennessee in October 2022 and extradited to Kentucky on several stolen property charges regarding some stolen surveying equipment that was taken at the same time as the Union County UTV.

Deputy Beeler was able to gather enough information to charge Lutke in the theft of the Livingston County dump truck, backhoe and trailer, even though the property had not been recovered.

On Monday, March 27, Deputy Beeler and Chief Deputy Devin Brewer found several locations in Tennessee that had been obtained during the first phase of that investigation that either had not been searched or had not been searched in several months.

According to the sheriff’s office, they went to several of the addresses on Monday, all of which were in Robertson County.

When they arrived at one rural property, they spotted a backhoe that fit the description of the stolen Livingston County backhoe.

They requested the assistance of the Robertson County Sheriff’s Office. During the investigation, they recovered the stolen backhoe, dump truck and pintle hitch equipment trailer, as well as the UTV owned by the 5 Star Electric Company.

According to the sheriff’s office, all of the items were still in reasonably good condition. They were returned to the owners in Kentucky.

As of Tuesday, March 28, the owner of the rural property is not facing charges in Kentucky in connection with the thefts.

The Tennessee part of the investigation is ongoing.

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