Contributed photo / Bethel Bible Village said at least $35,000 in equipment, including two industrial Kubota lawn mowers, were stolen from its Hixson campus Tuesday morning.Lawn equipment valued at least $35,000 was stolen from the Bethel Bible Village campus, according to a news release from the nonprofit.
Between midnight and 1 a.m. Tuesday, a suspect in a red truck entered the main entrance of the campus on Hamill Road in Hixson and loaded multiple pieces of landscaping equipment onto a trailer, the nonprofit said. Stolen equipment included two industrial size Kubota mowers, two chainsaws, a blower, a trimmer and a string trimmer, the nonprofit said.
A review of security camera footage showed the red truck to have been the only suspicious vehicle on campus at the time, Bethel Bible Village’s manager of marketing and communications, Erica Martin, said in an email.
Bethel Bible Village describes itself as a nonprofit ministry offering residential care, therapeutic services and education to children in crisis. Its mission is privately funded by individuals, churches, businesses and foundations, and a theft of that magnitude takes money directly from its programs, the news release said. The make or model of the vehicle involved is not known, the news release said, but the group encourages anyone with information to contact the Chattanooga Police Department at 423-643-5000.