BG man pleads guilty in theft, fraud case

A Bowling Green man charged in connection with reported theft of farm and construction equipment pleaded guilty Monday to multiple criminal charges.

Douglas A. Burd, 58, pleaded guilty in Warren Circuit Court to a count of receiving stolen property valued at $10,000 or more, obscuring the identity of a machine valued at $10,000 or more and fraudulent insurance acts valued at $10,000 or more.

Burd pleaded guilty in a separate case to trafficking in a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school.

In court on Monday, Burd admitted to buying a tractor he had reason to believe was stolen and obscuring the serial number on a piece of equipment.

He also admitted to attempting to collect on the insurance policy on a piece of stolen equipment after reporting it stolen from his property.

The case was investigated by the Warren County Sheriff's Office, which received a tip in 2020 from a confidential informant that construction equipment that had been stolen from a property in Indiana could be found at an address for Burd.

"I was told that Doug Burd has two men that work for him installing AC units all over the country and they steal construction equipment and bring it to Doug Burd," WCSO Detective Robert Smith said in an affidavit for a search warrant for Burd's address.

An investigation turned up information about a mini-excavator that had been stolen from an Indiana lawn care business, with the WCSO receiving surveillance footage showing the machine being loaded onto a trailer pulled by a blue Ford pickup truck.

Smith said in court records that he was provided a picture of a mini-excavator from the site that was reported stolen somewhere around Indianapolis, and was told that several other pieces of large equipment there were stolen.

Through additional investigation, Smith learned that the mini-excavator had been reported stolen June 20 from an Indiana lawn care business.

Smith received video surveillance footage of the theft that showed the mini-excavator being loaded onto a trailer being pulled by a blue Ford pickup truck with no bed, court records show.

The informant also claimed that an ATV stolen from the Western Kentucky University Farm, along with other stolen equipment, including a backhoe, two tractors and a skid-steer loader, could also be found at Burd's address, the affidavit said.

"I was informed that Doug Burd filed a stolen tractor report with the Warren County Sheriff's Office a couple of years ago," Smith said in the affidavit. "I was told the bill of sale he provided was forged and fake. Doug Burd took that report and filed a claim with his insurance and received approximately $50,000 for it."

Deputies executing a search warrant at Burd's address seized several pieces of equipment, some of which had the Vehicle Identification Number removed, court records show.

A co-defendant, Paul Rocco, pleaded guilty to a count of tampering with physical evidence and was placed on probation for five years.

Prosecutors are asking for a seven-year prison sentence for Burd, and plan to oppose probation.

Burd will return to court Jan. 24 for sentencing.