On August 15, 2019 a man driving a grey, Nissan truck drove into Cathedral City’s Cove neighborhood and drove out with a blue utility trailer parked on the driveway of a home on Bel Air Drive.
Surveillance video shows the thief taking it in broad daylight.
Bob Winkelmann who owned the trailer says it’s upsetting, “The brazenness of this is kind of frightening.”
But he says the worst part, a different blue trailer was stolen just months ago, “We were just shocked, the audacity of doing it once perhaps as a crime of opportunity but to have the same type of trailer, exactly the same size is just audacity.”
Winklemann has been putting in a lot of work into renovating the home and replacing this vital tool twice will rob him of $10,000 he could be putting back into this home, “So for us it’s like having your arm cut off.”
The street is a cul-de-sac, far from main roads that’s why he says whoever did this must know someone in the neighborhood or lives nearby, “The idea that it’s got to be somebody that’s entering the neighborhood on a regular basis or one of the neighbors is really makes it concerning.”
He hopes someone recognizes the truck, his trailer and the thief and turns him in before he strikes again and someone gets hurt, “It seems like this could be the basis for a larger crime … it’s important to figure out who this is and make sure that they’re punished in some way for preying on the neighborhood.”
If you have any information about this crime call Cathedral City Police Department: (760) 770-0300.
