Farmington police seek public's help finding skid-steer thieves

Two vandals who left a trail of damage in a Dakota County community last week were caught on video.

Police in Farmington have released an image from surveillance video showing what appear to be two young men near a skid-steer loader stolen from a construction trailer last Monday.

The thieves stole the loader about midnight and damaged the trailer and another piece of equipment and a nearby road, then drove it through downtown Farmington and used it to damage playground equipment and a shed at Farmington Elementary School, said detective Shawn Scovill.

A frame from video shot that night shows what appears to be a young man in the skid-steer cab while another looks on outside the elementary school.

"We did some enhancement with the surveillance video from the elementary school and we found what we consider a pretty decent picture of the individual. So, we posted it out to the public looking for some help identifying the individual," Scovill said.

The damage to the trailer, a roller, the road and at the school are extensive, and expensive. "We don't have an actual estimate, but we're somewhere in the range of $25,000 to $70,000," Scovill said.

The perpetrators also left behind a slip-on shoe at the scene, and that's been turned over to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for potential DNA analysis, he added.

He's asking anyone who knows about the incident to call Farmington police at 651-280-6700.