Owasso Man Back At Work After Locating Stolen Mowing Equipment

An Owasso man is back at work after setting up a trap to catch the thief who stole his livelihood.

A crook drove away with more than $20,000 worth of lawn mowing equipment last Monday. That's when News On 6 reported the theft and Rick Byrne said without our story and social media, he probably would have never gotten his equipment back.

“It's my own business, I love it. I can't see myself doing anything else. I'll die doing this,” Rick Byrne said while mowing a client's yard. “Last week was tough with no money, but this week I'm catching up.”

Byrne was forced to temporarily close his company when he woke up on Labor Day to find a crook had been hard at work, busting a lock on his work trailer.

9/1/2014 Related Story: Thieves Take More Than $20,000 Of Equipment From Owasso Man's Business

The trailer was locked to Byrne's work truck outside his house in Owasso, and locked to it was more than $20,000 worth of lawnmowers, weed-eaters, edgers and blowers - all equipment for Byrne's mowing business, Camo Outdoor Services.

Byrne thought he might never see his stuff again, until he got a message from a stranger about a trailer for sale on Facebook.

“He sent me a picture of the trailer saying, 'I think this is your trailer, this guy's trying to sell it,'” Byrne said.

Despite being concerned the seller might become violent or recognize him, Byrne and his father-in-law set up a meeting with the man in Tulsa.

Byrne said the man showed up with a woman and a child.

“It's sad to me because I know he was stealing it to sell it for money because he's not working, so he's doing what he can I guess, to make money for his family,” Byrne said. “But, then again, you can't take from somebody else.”

Byrne said he instantly knew the trailer was his, but he was more concerned about getting the equipment back.

“We showed him some cash and he lit up,” Byrne said. “We told him we had a big mowing contract and we needed some equipment, we should be out mowing today and he was like, 'Well, I've got some more equipment at 15th and Sheridan.'”

As they headed to a storage unit where the man was keeping the stolen goods, Byrne said the man got scared and pulled over, so Byrne called police.

“He finally confessed and he said he took it, he kept telling me, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,'” Byrne said.

But when the man wouldn't give up the key, police got a search warrant, opened the unit and found every piece of Byrne's equipment, plus some that didn't belong to him.

“Everything from my big mowers to my small gas cans, brooms, rakes, they were all together. It was amazing to see it all in one spot. I didn't have to hunt it down,” said Byrne.

Still, strangers hunted Byrne down, proving even bad luck can bring out the best in others.

“I actually received a few checks in the mail from people I don't know because they wanted to help me out and they'll be getting those checks back because I got my equipment back,” said Byrne.

Byrne said he's not parking his trailer on the street.

“It's in a secret spot in a storage place, so nobody will be able to mess with it,” he said.

Police arrested 20-year-old Miguel Melendez. He's being held at the Tulsa County jail on immigration and theft complaints.