Courtesy Photo­Image John Deere tractor and planter

Courtesy Photo­Image Caterpillar CH55

When law officers finally discovered a big new John Deere tractor and planter that went missing from a Paxton farm in 2008, they found even more stolen equipment.

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Indictments were handed down March 3 against two men in connection with the thefts.

Matthew T. Jones, 31, and Ryan R. Hanzlick 32, were arrested the next day without incident. They are charged with illegally transporting stolen tractors and farm implements from five states, including Nebraska.

The men face 12 counts of transporting goods and merchandise, knowing the goods were stolen, converted and taken by fraud, according to a grand jury indictment. If convicted, each man could serve 120 years in prison – 10 years per count.

There is insufficient evidence to convict them directly for the theft of the equipment, an investigator said.

The thefts took place between November 2005 and April 2008 and involved farm equipment from Wyoming, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado, according to the indictment.

The last implements stolen in the chain belonged to Roric Paulman, a farmer of nearly 4,000 acres in the Sutherland-Paxton area. Paulman’s nearly new John Deere tractor and prototype 16-row crop planter disappeared overnight from a field in April 2008.

Big unit

After a day of planting, Paulman parked the tractor and planter for the night at the edge of the field. When he went out the next day, it was gone.

Jones allegedly stole the tractor and planter and apparently drove 175 miles overnight straight south to near Colby, where he used it to plant his acres.

A tip led authorities to the Jones farm in late 2009. They found the tractor and planter. They also found lots of other missing farm equipment.

Jones already faced charges in connection with that theft. He had served about a month in jail in Kansas and posted $10,000 bail, said Sheriff Rod Taylor of Thomas County, Kan.

The tractor and planter had a combined value of $350,000, Ogallala JD dealer Justin Childears told the Bulletin in 2008. And the listed value was even higher on the arrest warrant — $475,000.

The latest indictment said the stolen equipment is a gooseneck trailer, a Case trencher and trailer, a Case skid steer loader and trailer, a Gleaner combine, a Caterpillar CH55 tractor, a John Deere 5460 tractor and loader, a grain cart, dump trailer and Chevy pickup, among other property.

Childhood friends

Jones and Hanzlick grew up together. They were childhood friends and graduates of Colby High School.

They both own real estate in North Platte.

Jones, doing business as Jones Land and Cattle, owns mobile home parks in North Platte, one near Rodeo Road and Adams and another near 6th and Bicentennial Ave.

In 2009, farm machines, including a late-model Cat track tractor, were occasionally parked on Jones’ lot at Rodeo and Adams.

For the last year, Hanzlick has worked for a farmer near the Frontier-Hayes County line, a few miles south of Lincoln County.

Hanzlick’s employer said Hanzlick was a responsible, intelligent worker, respected by friends and acquaintances. Hanzlick’s wife is a Russian immigrant and they have a blended family of four children.

Hanzlick is said to manage Jones’ mobile home courts and also owns about a dozen rental homes. In 2007, Hanzlick bought some pastureland 10 miles south of North Platte along U.S. Highway 83 to develop for 10-acre residential plots. He sold that land in 2008, according to county records.

Also, Hanzlick was one of two men who teamed up to bid on the Pawnee Hotel in a tax sale in May 2007. At the time, the hotel’s owners owed more than $70,000 in back taxes. Hanzlick and his partner made the bid at a sheriff’s sale, but the Pawnee owners paid the back taxes a few days later and kept the property.

Hanzlick also had a prior charge in Kansas — a misdemeanor when he tried to take some equipment from the Jones farm in 2009. But Sheriff Taylor said the charge was dismissed because the equipment apparently belonged to Hanzlick.

On March 3, Jones and Hanzlick were indicted by a grand jury in Kansas in connection with the theft of all the equipment. The next day, Hanzlick was called to the Hayes County Courthouse. He arrived at 9 a.m. and was arrested. Jones was arrested at noon that day in Colby, the FBI said.

Neither man is incarcerated. Jones pledged a personal recognizance bond of $10,000, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Kansas. His trial is set for May 11.

Hanzlick is also out of jail and due to appear soon in U.S. District Court in Witchita, Kan.

The investigation leading to the arrests involved the sheriffs of both Hayes County, Neb. and Thomas County, Kan. as well as the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the FBI in Kansas and Nebraska.