WILLMAR -- Apple trees dotted with red fruit line the gravel driveway to Walter Bosch's farm place in rural Lake Lillian. The fruit trees, white farm house, silo and outbuildings provide an idyllic scene like so many others dotting the countryside.
However, what happened recently on the Bosch place isn't at all idyllic. Thieves visited the place at least twice during late August and early September. From a cattle barn, they made off with two boats, one a handmade wooden boat powered by a 1908 steam engine, and some antique farm equipment. From outside of the house, they stole the copper lightning rod. From the inside, they stripped all of the copper plumbing from the basement.
"The house is done -- it's not worth fixing," said Wes Bosch, Walter's son. Bosch is admittedly "frosted" about the theft of the plumbing from his father's home. The place hasn't been lived on since Walter moved to a care facility a couple of years ago.
The Bosch family is now circulating fliers and e-mails seeking information on the whereabouts of one of the stolen boats. The Vada Grace is a wooden boat, handmade and powered by a 1908 Steeple steam engine -- which Wes' insurance is not covering because the boat was not stored on his property. He figures the value of the boat to be at least $10,000, but also figures that there's only $100 worth of salvageable metal in the Vada Grace.
Bosch had countless hours invested in the boat. He has just retired and was looking forward to taking it out more often and showing it in parades and such.
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"I thought it was the neatest thing. Very few kids, and few adults, have seen anything like it," he said. "They are stealing our history away from us. It's a piece of history that can't be replaced."
Bosch's contacts through the Atwater Threshers group reveal that many antique tractor buffs have already felt the pinch of the metal thieves. The brass carburetors from old tractors are a sought-after item by thieves seeking precious metals such as brass, copper, aluminum and platinum.
It is the theft of items like carburetors -- antiques that cannot be replaced -- that steams Bosch. He and his brother were trying to fix up old cars, but the thieves took the rear end of a Model T Ford. "It was the only piece of the car that was on the place," he said.
While there have been other thefts in the Atwater area, Kandiyohi County Sheriff Dan Hartog does not believe the theft from the Bosch place is part of a larger theft ring.
Since April, there have been about a half dozen theft cases in the county, several of which are believed to be landlord-tenant disputes, and only one case that is similar in nature. In March, piping, ladders and scrap items were taken from a Belgrade residence in the northern portion of the county.
"We have nothing to link these reports to one person," Hartog said, noting that, in fact, the department has other leads in the cases.
At this point, the Sheriff's Department does not have any leads on the boat, he said.
Bosch's daughters, Theresa Stark of St. Paul and Leslie Kelly of Willmar, are circulating e-mails and fliers seeking information about who took the Vada Grace and the boat's whereabouts. They are trying to connect circles of friends electronically to get more information. In the end, though, the Bosch family agrees that folks need to pay attention and speak up when they see anything out of the ordinary happening.
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"People are going to have to pay more attention when they see something," Stark said. "They have to let the police know."
Bosch is offering a personal reward for information that leads to the return of the Vada Grace or the arrest of the person who took the boat. Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Kandiyohi County Sheriff's Office at 320-235-1260 or Crime Stoppers at 320-235-3640.
