Thieves steal truck, trailer full of meat, and more

The meat was a bunch of rib eyes and brisket. The truck, well, that's what's really special.

By HELEN ANNE TRAVIS, Times Staff Writer
Published October 17, 2007

CRYSTAL SPRINGS -Danny Tyler named the Peterbilt truck after his daughter, Cheyenne. She was 10 when he bought it in 2004. Cheyenne would beg her father to drive her to school in the truck, descending from the cab with a boastful smile, her father said, as her classmates stared.

He had "Miss Cheyenne" painted in small silver letters on either side of the metallic blue hood.

Monday, Miss Cheyenne was stolen from a parking lot used by truckers in Crystal Springs, just north of the Hillsborough County line. The thieves took Miss Cheyenne and attached it to a refrigerated trailer full of 40,000 pounds of frozen rib eye and brisket, valued at more than $200,000.

Then they drove away.

Tyler hasn't told his daughter yet.

"She'll be heartbroken," he said.

The meat belonged to Cargill, an international food provider, and was being transported by Fairly Green Transport from a plant in Kansas to warehouses in Florida, said Don Armstrong, the transport company owner.

The meat wasn't due until Monday, Armstrong said, and during the weekend the driver he hired parked the trailer at the Crystal Springs lot and left it unattended overnight.

According to deputies, the driver and others at the lot tried to hide the trailer from anyone traveling on the road before they left. But Sunday night or Monday morning, someone came onto the lot, broke into Tyler's truck, attached the meat-filled trailer and took off.

Armstrong said the trailer belonged to Joseph Specht, a fellow trucker. Specht could not be reached Tuesday.

Tyler believes the thieves could have stolen any truck to transport the trailer, but they took his for a reason.

"People look at Peterbilt as the Corvette of trucks," he said.

For more than two decades, the 44-year-old has moved goods around the country. Tyler said he likes getting paid to travel, but the long weeks away from home are a drag.

He and his wife are divorced. They don't have a formal custody arrangement, he said, but she lets him see Cheyenne, now 13, whenever he's home.

He remembers the day he showed his daughter the truck's new name. She was playing in the cab, pretending to turn the big steering wheel. He asked her if she noticed anything was different about the truck.

She saw "Miss Cheyenne."

"She just got this big smile on her face," Tyler said.

The two words helped him on his long rides across the country.

"When you go off like that, you miss your family, your loved ones, and its kind of like having her with me," he said.

With the help of her mother, Cheyenne bought him blankets and jackets for his trips, Tyler said. She gave him movies to watch during layovers.

The last time he saw Miss Cheyenne and the blankets and films was Sunday morning. Tyler said he dropped the truck off at the Crystal Springs lot after a drive from Texas to the Publix distribution center in Lakeland.

He hopes he'll see Miss Cheyenne again.

"A lot of times, those trucks will be found and they'll be completely stripped. You hear about these things, and you think it won't happen to me," he said. "It's the worst type of violation."

Pasco deputies are still investigating the theft.

Helen Anne Travis can be reached at 352 521-6518 or htravis@sptimes.com.

[Last modified October 16, 2007, 21:43:28]