Turley Business Owners Say Jogging Trail Serves As 'Highway Of Thieves'

Business owners along a popular jogging and biking trail say they're being targeted by thieves. They say the trail is the perfect getaway for whoever's stealing scrap metal and engine parts.

North Tulsa Auto Recycle backs up to the Osage Prairie Trail, a place that's supposed to be for exercise.

"[People] jog, bike, different things like that but they use it for a lot more," said owner Willie Asher.

Asher said, when the sun goes down his nerves go up, all because of the traffic brought in by the trail.

"There's nothing really you can do. The trail's wide open," he said.

Asher said, nearly every night, someone breaks into his business and steals scrap metal or engine parts from his equipment, sometimes as much as $3,000 worth.

It's gotten so bad business owners there have started calling the trail the "Highway of Thieves."

"And that's exactly what it is and nothing is stopping it," said Joyce Devin.

Devin's fiancee owns a construction company that stores its equipment near the trail.

He's had to weld shut a shed on the property, and you can clearly make out a trail used by the thieves, leading to a spot in the fence that has had to be patched up with wire.

"Yeah, it's a problem, a big problem," Devin said.

Asher has to remove the batteries in his heavy equipment every night, he also put up a fence around the property, and built a special contraption that bars the door to his tool shed.

"We have to put shelving around our doors so you can see where the plate of metal is, where we run the bolts and how we lock it. The locks are worthless, they pried them open," he said.

Asher said they lose about two hours everyday, just putting extra locks on the doors and removing the batteries from all of their equipment. In this business, he said, time is money.

The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office said they don't have any official complaints on file about the area, but they do patrol the trail from time to time on horses or bicycles.

Asher's tired of losing property and said something needs to be done soon.

"You lose $1,000 a day, everyday, over something stupid. It's ridiculous," he said.

The business owners said they'll just keep fighting the fight and hope for more law enforcement to put an end to the problem.