The Saline County Sheriff's Office is investigating two cases they believe to be related that involve a burned pickup and a stolen pickup and trailer.
Saline County Sheriff's Captain Jim Hughes said this morning that deputies were called to the 6400 block of East Campbell Road in northeastern Saline County at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday for the report of a grass fire. When they arrived, however, they found a pickup in the roadway fully engulfed in flames, Hughes said.
The intensity of the fire has made it difficult to positively identify the pickup, Hughes said. The pickup looks to be a two-wheel-drive model in the Dodge Ram 2500 series and has a body style from the 1993-2004 time period, he said. Investigators are having difficulty reading the vehicle identification number, but remain hopeful that they will be able to do so and positively identify the pickup's owner, Hughes said.
The Saline County Sheriff's Office has not received reports of a pickup fitting that loose description being stolen, he added.
In what is believed to be a related incident, a white 2000 Ford F150 with side toolboxes and an attached 2010 Road Clipper tilt-bed trailer was stolen from a property along East Campbell Road just 100 yards from the burned pickup, Hughes said. The pickup was valued at $2,500 and the trailer at $4,500, he said.
A short while later, the trailer was located approximately four miles away in the middle of the road in the 4000 block of North Kipp Road, Hughes said. It is believed that the hitch broke on the truck and that the trailer remained attached by the safety chains, he said. The trailer was returned to its owner, Hughes added.