INDIANAPOLIS -- For more than a month, Jim Clark has been without a critical, $80,000 piece of equipment.
Clark is known throughout the Meridian-Kessler Neighborhood as the "Tree Machine." But lately he hasn't been able to live up to the company name.
"An arborist, a tree guy, without tools is not a tree guy," Clark said. "I have to have my tools to do the work I do. It's essential. I'm defined by my tools."
The tool in question is an Italian-made spider lift. Up until last month, only a couple of dozen other arborists in the United States owned one. Clark was one of them, until his was stolen.
Now Clark says he has a lead on the alleged thief. A man, also in the tree business, who lived just two blocks from Clark's locked storage lot called the company asking questions only the Italian company could answer.
"The thieves had to call the company to get a replacement part, and they had to give up information as to who they were and who they were with before the information was given," Clark said. "So we know who the thief is."
Clark said the thief even provided the serial number from his machine.
Even though he has all that information, Clark said he doesn't expect to get his spider lift back. He thinks it's been sold out of state or out of the country.
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