Midwest Farmer Claims Thief Stole Soybeans – Right Out of His Field!

This small town farm crime is almost too incredible to be true. To mastermind - and pull off - a farm crime of this magnitude would have to take a cool, meticulous thief...with a brass pair.

Just across the eastern Iowa border lies a small farm owned by Matt Schuster. In one of his 18-acre fields, the soybeans were ready to be harvested. However, upon arriving at his field one sunny morning last week, he discovered something rather strange.

His soybeans were gone.

Someone had actually gone into his field, fired up a combine, harvested the soybeans, and made a clean getaway.

They worked fast.. it only took them two hours to get this out. It's just flat-out organized crime." - Matt Schuster on KWQC-TV

Farmer Matt is known to all of his neighbors as using only red farm machinery. However, neighbors spotted a slender, dark haired man driving an older green John Deere combine. They assumed that Mr. Schuster had hired the work out.

He is now working with his insurance company and trying to salvage what crop is left. Overall, he estimates that the soybeans are worth over $18,000.

They were bold enough just to combine them and take them right out through the residential area."

Meanwhile, police are looking for the combine and Schuster said he's confident they'll find who did this.

Schuster is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest. The contact number is 815-777-2141.

Farmers should remain vigilant and watch for anything suspicious. In northern Minnehaha county, there were reports of diesel fuel being siphoned from farm machinery left in the fields.

source: NBC affiliate - KWQC