Apparently Russian forces raided a Deere farm equipment dealership in Ukraine and tried to bring it to Chechnya. Only when it finally got there all the systems were remotely disabled. They also contained GPS (I've actually met a Deere engineer who worked in Southern California working on their GPS systems) where they were able to figure out where the stolen equipment was.
www.cnn.com
Russians plunder $5M farm vehicles from Ukraine -- to find they've been remotely disabled | CNN
Russian troops in the occupied city of Melitopol have stolen all the equipment from a farm equipment dealership -- and shipped it to Chechnya, according to a Ukrainian businessman in the area.
www.cnn.com
Over the past few weeks there's been a growing number of reports of Russian troops stealing farm equipment, grain and even building materials - beyond widespread looting of residences. But the removal of valuable agricultural equipment from a John Deere dealership in Melitopol speaks to an increasingly organized operation, one that even uses Russian military transport as part of the heist.
CNN has learned that the equipment was removed from an Agrotek dealership in Melitopol, which has been occupied by Russian forces since early March. Altogether it's valued at nearly $5 million. The combine harvesters alone are worth $300,000 each.
CNN is not naming a contact in Melitopol familiar with the details of the case for their own safety.
The contact said the process began with the seizure of two combine harvesters, a tractor and a seeder. Over the next few weeks, everything else was removed: in all 27 pieces of farm machinery. One of the flat-bed trucks used, and caught on camera, had a white "Z" painted on it and appeared to be a military truck.
The contact said there were rival groups of Russian troops: some would come in the morning and some in the evening.
Some of the machinery was taken to a nearby village, but some of it embarked on a long overland journey to Chechnya more than 700 miles away. The sophistication of the machinery, which are equipped with GPS, meant that its travel could be tracked. It was last tracked to the village of Zakhan Yurt in Chechnya.
The equipment ferried to Chechnya, which included combine harvesters -- can also be controlled remotely. "When the invaders drove the stolen harvesters to Chechnya, they realized that they could not even turn them on, because the harvesters were locked remotely," the contact said.
