Semi trailer taken from business

Joe Hix hasn’t figured out why anyone would steal a new semi trailer, but he does know they needed a semi tractor to pull off the weekend heist.
He and his wife were at the business at 2333 Seventh Ave. on Sunday cleaning offices when he noticed tracks going across the grass. At first, the thought someone had driven across the lawn.
“Then I realized something was missing,” Hix said. “It was a brand-new trailer.”
The MAC half round trailer, often used to haul gravel, has a rolling tarp top and can lift up at the front to dump its load, he said. It has an estimated value of $42,000 and was stolen sometime between Friday night and 5 p.m. Sunday.
Hix has talked to people at other businesses in the area, and no one noticed someone pulling away with the trailer. He’s also driven around the area looking for the trailer, hoping someone just moved it as a joke.
Semi trailers have serial numbers that can be tracked when they pass through weigh stations or are stopped, Hix said. He doubts anyone would cut the trailer apart and sell it as scrap metal. It was made out of aluminum, but aluminum prices have been dropping.
He will be investing in pin locks for the rest of the trailers on his lot. That will keep thieves from being able to hook the trailers to a semi tractor.
Hix didn’t buy the locks before because he had never heard of anyone stealing a semi trailer. He and his wife have owned the business for about a year.
“Even one of our longtime salesmen said he’s never seen anything like it,” Hix said.

Man Hit and Killed by Semi Truck

A person is dead after being hit by a semi truck on county road 305 in southern St. Johns County.
It happened at Jen-Sar Farms Wednesday afternoon.
According to St. Johns County Sheriff's officers, the victim, 54-year-old Gerald Jones of East Palatka, worked at Jen-Sar and was helping a coworker hook up and move trailers.
During one of the moves, he got caught between the semi and the trailer while the semi was backing up.
Jones was pronounced dead at the scene.