HENDERSON, Colorado — A teacher hopes a thief has the heart to return a stolen welding trailer designed, built and operated by high school students.
“It makes me sick because this was stolen from my students,” said Zac Stamp, welding instructor at Prairie View High School in Henderson.
Stamp said he took the trailer and portable welder home to Mead last week so his students could work on a gazebo project for his father. Stamp came home from work Thursday and discovered his truck missing.
“My truck was gone, so I called the police immediately and as I was calling them, I did realize that the welding trailer was also gone,” he said.
Stamp said someone unhooked a trailer attached to his truck, hooked up the welding trailer that was parked nearby and drove off. He’d left the keys to his truck under the floor mat, he said.
Stamp said his truck was recovered in Aurora, but there was no sign of the trailer or welding equipment.
“We had a Miller Bobcat 250 welder which is a portable welder that’s got an engine-driven generator and a welding setup so you can weld anywhere,” he said.
Stamp said the equipment and trailer are worth at least $10,000. His students at Prairie View High School spent months building the trailer from scratch. Students used the portable welding equipment for projects throughout the community.
“It’s taking from our youth, it’s taking from the future, it’s taking from people that could potentially, you know, build your office building someday because they got inspired by that one piece of equipment,” Stamp said.
The trailer is decorated with the letters "BHS." There are emblems of a bulldog and thunderhawk attached to the side walls of the trailer.
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