Theft Victim Recovers Own Stolen Trailer From Tulsa Parking Lot

A Tulsa man had his trailer stolen five months ago and figured it was gone for good, until he pulled into a parking lot Saturday afternoon and saw it hooked up to someone else's truck.

The minute Nathan realized it was his stolen trailer, he unhooked it from the suspect's truck, hooked it up to his truck, let the air out of the suspect's tires, called 911 and waited.

"He said, ‘hey, what are you doing?’” Nathan said. “And I said, ‘I'm taking my trailer back.’ He said, ‘What do you mean?’

“And I said, it's a stolen trailer and I'm taking it back."

Nathan never expected to see this trailer again after someone stole it from a restoration job site in June.

He couldn't believe it when he saw it in a Lowe's parking lot on Saturday, so he first took pictures of the other guy's truck, the tag and then of one of the men when he came out of the store.

"Right off the bat, I told them I was carrying [a gun]… we can work this out civilly or it can end really bad,” he said.

He made them keep their hands in sight and surveyed the area to make sure no innocent citizens might get hurt, but he said after exchanging some pretty heated words, the men stayed until officers arrived.

When it was over, Nathan helped unload the man's tool box from the trailer and they shook hands and left.

“It's not just that it's a $1,000 trailer, but …hey, I work hard and something was stolen from me and I'm taking back what I worked for,” he said.

Police couldn't make an arrest that day because the man said he bought the trailer and didn't know it was stolen.

He didn't have any paperwork, but they let him go for now.