Social media sleuths find stolen Sno-Cat
Thief tows “General Lee” from Minturn to Mesa Co.
EAGLE» John Brandenburg had the kids and friends loaded up for a day of spring skiing when he pulled into the parking lot in Minturn and saw his beloved 1982 Tucker Sno-Cat was not where he left it two days earlier.
The trailered Tucker was stolen. But before he called police Sunday, Brandenburg jumped on Facebook.
“I knew it would get attention right away and it would hit thousands of eyes right off the bat,” said Brandenburg, who three years ago joined a crew of pals to buy the snow-traversing machine off eBay.
He posted pictures of the cat, a tank-sized machine on a trailer. It was easily discernible, with a bright-orange paint job, lined with stars and a big “01” on the doors to mirror the famous “General Lee” from the “Dukes of Hazzard.”
Within a couple hours, he had fielded more than a couple dozen sightings. The cat was on Interstate 70 heading west.
“Everyone said it was being towed by a Toyota Tacoma. At least 30 people PM’d me and said the same thing. I was like, ‘Aren’t you sure it wasn’t a Tundra?’ That’s what drew their eye, this tiny truck towing this big load with a tarp flying off it.”
One of the cat’s owners, a Denver pilot, jumped in his plane and started aerial surveillance of the highways around the Western Slope, watching for a Tacoma hauling a tank.
One woman who had seen Brandenburg’s post called the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office. She was so curious about the overworked truck, she followed it to a house in Mesa County.
When Mesa County deputies with a search warrant arrived at the home on Deer Park Circle on Sunday night, 27-year-old Jason Cuervo barricaded himself in the home, one of several highend custom residences on a culde-sac bordering Colorado National Monument.
SWAT officers showed up, and 55 neighbors were notified to stay indoors.
Cuervo escaped, but the SWAT team did recover the Tucker Sno-Cat as well as weapons, ammunition, drugs and related paraphernalia. Cuervo has several outstanding felony warrants.
The Sno-Cat is more than a machine to its owners. The group of backcountry snowboarders and skiers had long joked about buying a snow machine when one of them got serious a few years ago. He started sending the crew photos of cats for sale across the country. They crunched the numbers, and three years ago they picked up a machine from a seller in northern California.
“We had no freaking idea what we were doing,” Brandenburg said. “The next thing we knew we were learning to weld and wire. It became a fullblown, full-time job and obsession. That thing has taken on a life of its own. It’s a living, breathing organism to us.”
It’s not the first time Brandenburg has turned to social media for help. When a skier sliced his dog’s leg several years ago, an online fundraiser helped offset surgical costs. When that dog went missing last year, a Facebook post helped him find King Midas.
“Look at social media and you think it’s useless,” he said. “But in reality, when it comes time for people to pull it together and do stuff the right way, it happens.”