John Deere tractor used to apprehend store thief

Jun 02, 2016

Footage shows car with only two wheels on the ground

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

A store owner used his John Deere tractor to stop a potential theft.

A video from Norway, said to be shot by German tourists, shows a car that has run into forks attached to a tractor.

The owner of the tractor, a man named Harald Mikkelsen, said he received a tip of suspicious activity at his shop and drove it over to investigate.

When the burglar saw Mikkelsen, he tried to escape but drove his Mercedes into the tractor.

The video shows Mikkelsen sitting in the tractor after he used it to life the car off the ground when the burglar tried to speed away.

“We had eye contact the whole time,” Mikkelsen told a local newspaper. “Eventually he gave up, took off his ski mask and just lit up a smoke. For some reason he didn’t want to leave the car.”

The whole situation lasted approximately 45 minutes.

The video continues to show the Mercedes lifted up by the tractor until the police show up (2:00 mark of the video). Mikkelsen lowers the car to allow the police to place the burglar in handcuffs, search him and place him in a police vehicle.

Mikkelsen’s actions were praised by police and his town’s mayor.

But when authorities warned against people taking the law into their own hands, Mikkelsen said he had the right of way.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.