James Moorcroft Imprisoned For Stolen Truck/Tractor Caper

The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that James Moorcroft, 50, of Brookfield, Vermont, was sentenced today in United States District Court in Burlington to six months of imprisonment following his guilty plea to charges that he possessed eight trucks and tractors which had crossed state lines after being stolen. U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III ordered that Moorcroft serve three years of supervised release following completion of his prison term. As a condition of supervised release, the court required Moorcroft to serve an additional six months of home confinement when he gets out of jail. The court ordered Moorcroft to pay restitution of more than $122,000. Moorcroft was directed to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on September 8 to begin serving his sentence.

On August 13, 2014, a federal grand jury in Rutland returned a seven count indictment accusing Moorcroft of possessing six trucks and two farm tractors which had been transported across state lines after being stolen. According to the indictment, between 2000 and 2012, Moorcroft orchestrated the thefts of eight trucks and tractors from locations in Vermont, New York, Massachusetts and Maine. Moorcroft then transported the stolen equipment to a farm he lives on in Brookfield, where he used the vehicles. Moorcroft stripped the vehicle identification numbers off the stolen equipment, affixed replacement VINs and registered the vehicles in Vermont. The pieces of equipment were worth about $193,000 when stolen.

In February 2014, police in Connecticut examined one of the stolen vehicles at the home of a relative of Moorcroft's and discovered that the public VIN did not match a confidential VIN hidden within the vehicle. At that point, authorities theorize, Moorcroft panicked and decided to dispose of the stolen equipment he had on his farm. In February and March 2014, authorities recovered all eight stolen trucks and tractors after they had been abandoned or moved to locations in Vermont, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

This case was investigated by the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles.

Moorcroft is represented by Natasha Sen. The prosecutor is Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Waples.