Tools worth $300,000 stolen from Portland landscaping company

PORTLAND, Ore. (KPTV) - Monaghan’s Landscaping is getting by after thousands of dollars worth of equipment and trucks were stolen out of their property.

Surveillance video shows around 4 a.m. on April 26, three men entered the property where Colette and Jamie Monaghan store their landscaping equipment. The property sits just behind the Beth Israel Cemetery, one of many properties they take care of. The thieves were fully covered from head to toe and hiding their faces.

Jamie Monaghan arrived to work just hours later to find two dump trucks and a trailer gone. He also found damage to his garage door and about $300,000 worth of tools gone. Tools like an air compressor, generators, and chainsaws.

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The Portland Police Bureau said the Monaghans believe the thief might be a former employee. They say the keys to the trucks weren’t kept in an obvious place within the shop.

“We think it was an inside job,” Colette Monaghan said. “A guy that was employed here four days, and he was here just long enough to stake it out. Jamie caught him snooping around in a storage unit in the bottom of the mausoleum.”

About 48 hours after the burglary, police found one of the dump trucks damaged. Colette Monaghan said the truck was found abandoned behind IKEA in northeast Portland.

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“To think that I have to take that as a win, you know what I mean?” Jamie Monaghan said. “Like okay, ‘They took all my stuff and oh, I get one truck back.’”

Business won’t stop for the Monaghans, but now they must rent equipment.

“A lot of hard work went in into getting all those tools,” Jamie Monaghan said. “No one just handed them to me. We worked hard.”

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