A father and son have been accused of stealing a $40,000 tractor from a Clintonville parking lot.
Charged with felony theft are Neil E. Schonscheck, 62, Oshkosh, and Jay N. Schonscheck, 38, Winneconne.
Neil Schonscheck has also been charged in Waupaca County with felony bail jumping. He was charged Dec. 3, 2013, in Winnebago County with one felony count of issuing worthless checks.
Clintonville police were called out to the Kwik Trip on the afternoon of Saturday, Jan. 25.
There they met with the tractor’s owner, who told investigators he brought it to the store’s parking lot, where he was to meet Neil Schonscheck. He had purchased the tractor from Schonscheck in August 2013 for $42,500 with the understanding that if he decided to sell it, Schonscheck would have the first right to buy it back.
According to the criminal complaint, Schonscheck had asked the owner if he would sell the tractor back to him. The owner agreed to meet him at the Kwik Trip and sell the tractor for $40,000 cash.
That morning, however, when the Schonschecks arrived in Clintonville, Neil said he did not have the cash with him, because his “money guy” from Gresham had driven off a county road into a ditch, the complaint says. The tractor’s owner, and a friend who was with him, agreed to help pull the “money guy” out of the ditch.
The two parties became separated, and after several hours of searching for a car in a ditch, the tractor’s owner returned to the Kwik Trip and discovered the tractor was gone.
Schonscheck told investigators the tractor belonged to him and denied selling it to the other man, the complaint says.