Thousands of dollars worth of tools stolen within minutes in Newburg

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - It was a typical morning for New Leaf Tree Service in Newburg. Michael Dubree, who co-owns the business, left at 7:30 a.m. His business partner left at 8 a.m.

Around 8:22 a.m., a truck drives toward the back of the shop. A few minutes later, you can see a man exit out of this door with something in his hands.

His truck is on the way out by 8:26 a.m.

“He obviously knew something in order to come back here and to do it that quick and exit that quick,” Dubree said.

Dubree came back at 11:30 a.m. to get some equipment for his next job.

He couldn’t find what he was looking for, and that’s when he realized what happened.

“It dawned on me that we’d been hit,” Dubree said.

$6,000 worth of tools were stolen.

“I noticed that the big chainsaw was gone because it takes up a whole entire top shelf,” Dubree said. “That was gone, and then I had another chainsaw down here, a big chainsaw. It was gone as well. And also on the other side of the wall, we had a STIHL weed eater, and found out later on in the day that it was missing too.”

All that within minutes.

“Four minutes, this guy was in and out,” Dubree said. “He was probably only in our shop for two minutes. I mean, he cleaned house really quick.”

For him, it’s not just about the money, it could impact the jobs his business can take.

Some of these saws you can’t just walk into a store and buy.

“There’s a year and a half wait to get that chainsaw,” Dubree said. “We had actually been on a year wait to receive the one that got stolen. And we had only used the saw once.”

Dubree doesn’t know how the thief even found them.

“We’re in a pretty secluded area,” he said. “We don’t have any big elicit signs or anything like that that really tells where we are.”

In fact, it took us a couple of tries to find the shop, and we had the address and GPS.

“He came in through the back door right there,” Dubree said. “I don’t know if he took anything out that door or not because I only got him with two or three things when he came out the other door.”

Dubree said someone reached out to him saying that the same truck was seen at Lowe’s on Hurstborne Parkway.

The tipster said he saw a man looking into the beds of other trucks in the parking lot. However, he left before Dubree could get there.

Dubree doesn’t think it was an inside job. He thinks it was just someone looking for a quick buck.

He and his business partner filed a police report and notified pawn shops in the area.

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