ASSARIA -- The Saline County Sheriff's Office is investigating the theft of nearly $2,000 worth of items from an area telephone company van that was briefly stolen early Monday morning in Assaria.
Deputies first were dispatched to the 1200 block of East Mentor Road at 6:10 a.m. Monday for the report of a van parked along the road with its door open, Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan said this morning. The van belonged to Mutual Telephone Company of Little River, he said.
Then at 6:49 a.m. Monday an employee of Mutual Telephone Company reported to the sheriff's office that his work van was missing from where it was parked in the 100 block of South Highland Avenue in Assaria, Soldan said. GPS on the 2013 Chevrolet Express van indicated that the ignition was started at 3:59 a.m. Monday and that it was driven for slightly longer than 15 minutes before it was abandoned on East Mentor Road, he said.
A surveillance camera in the area caught images of what Soldan called a "vehicle of interest" shortly before and after 4 a.m. on Monday. The vehicle appears to be a dark-colored pickup, perhaps a Dodge Ram, Soldan said.
According to Soldan, the van was not damaged, but $1,990 worth of items, including tools and a Dell laptop were stolen from the van.