FAIRFIELD, NJ — Fairfield police say they recovered a stolen mini excavator in a residential yard after GPS tracking led officers to Plog Road, where the construction machine had been offered for sale through Facebook Marketplace. A South Jersey man has now been charged in connection with the case.
Authorities said the equipment, a Kubota U17 mini excavator, had originally been reported stolen in Newark, Delaware, after it was allegedly rented from a Home Depot store and never returned. Police said the machine was tracked to Fairfield on July 15, setting off the investigation that later identified the seller.
GPS tracking led officers to a Fairfield side yard
Police said the investigation started when officers responded to Plog Road after learning the excavator was being actively tracked by GPS to that area. Once they arrived, officers found the machine in the side yard of a home.
The use of location data was central to the recovery. According to Fairfield police, the GPS signal narrowed the search enough for officers to locate the excavator quickly rather than rely on a broader neighborhood canvas. That helped investigators connect the machine in New Jersey to the theft reported in Delaware.
Homeowner says he bought the excavator online
The homeowner told officers he had bought the mini excavator through Facebook Marketplace and gave investigators information about the person who sold it. That account became an important part of the case as detectives worked backward from the sale to the seller.
Police said the homeowner’s cooperation helped them identify a trail of records tied to the transaction. The machine was not simply found abandoned; investigators were dealing with a resale that appeared, at least on the surface, to be a routine online purchase of used construction equipment.
Detectives reviewed payments messages and video
Fairfield detectives later examined financial transactions, electronic communications and video footage connected to the sale. Police said those records supported the case that the excavator had been sold after it was stolen.
Investigators also used a photo array, and the buyer later identified 45-year-old Raymond Iddeen of Millville as the man who allegedly sold him the excavator. Police said the identification was part of the follow-up work that connected the online sale to the stolen equipment.
Raymond Iddeen faces stolen property and fencing charges
Iddeen was charged on Sept. 2 with receiving stolen property and fencing, Fairfield police said. The arrest follows the recovery of the excavator and the investigation into how it moved from Delaware to New Jersey.
Police have not said whether more people are being investigated in connection with the sale. The case centers on the resale of construction equipment that investigators say should never have been back on the market after it was rented and not returned.
What investigators say happened to the Kubota U17
According to police, the Kubota U17 began its journey in Newark, Delaware, where it was reported stolen after the rental agreement was not honored. From there, it was tracked into Fairfield, found in a home’s side yard and traced to an online sale on Facebook Marketplace.
Iddeen is scheduled to appear in Essex County Superior Court. Fairfield police did not release additional details about the value of the excavator or any other property connected to the case.
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