Family offers reward on vandalized farm equipment

A Chouteau County farm family looking at damages from vandalism to equipment and supplies, possibly totaling into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, are receiving help from the farm and ranch community to offer up to $20,000 in rewards for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators and to recover from their loss.

The extended Gasvoda family live about 30 miles from Big Sandy on the south side of the Bear Paws with farm and ranch property in Chouteau and Blaine counties supporting brothers Brian and Dana, their wives Cortney and Melissa, along with their children and grandchildren. Either late Wednesday or early Thursday vandals damaged and or destroyed several pieces of farm equipment at their farmland in southwest Blaine County.

"Yeah. This was a big hit," said Cortney Gasvoda, who's husband Brian got the first calls about a truck of theirs in the ditch.

Included in the list of items is a crop sprayer, a semi-truck with water tanks, chemical truck and pumps, and several chemical shuttles that held around 300 gallons of crop sprays. It appears that the sprayer, a $400,000 piece of equipment, was used to run into and or overturn the other pieces of equipment.

Cortney Gasvoda said they were able to recover a small percentage of spray, but the rest was spilled out on the ground and everything else is left as it was when they found it until an insurance adjuster can assess the damage

"I don't know, I have no words," she said, adding that they are trying to get through harvest and figure out how to replace all their sprays needed for harvesting and where to find or hire a sprayer.

"We had everything parked there because a lot of our big farm fields are right there. And we've never had an issue, never had an issue with leaving our stuff," Gasvoda said, and now she's also having to answer questions from her grandkids about "bad people."

Other damages occurred in the general area, and authorities and victims are looking into all of the incidents, thinking they are likely related.

Lindsay Boyce, who ranches with her husband Stephen in northeast Chouteau County, said they and her father-in-law had damage to a tractor and extensive damage to a skidsteer after the tractor was used to flip over the skidsteer and then parked on top of it. They, too are waiting to see if any of the equipment is recoverable.

Blaine County Undersheriff Chris Adair said that the county had windows shot out of a mower tractor where it was parked on Clear Creek Road, and a deer was shot that same night, which may be connected.

By far, though, the Gasvodas sustained the most damages.

The ag community, however, is rallying to help catch the vandals and help the Gasvodas recover from this major setback.

After seeing Brian and his son Dustin Gasvodas' posts about the incident and their offer of a $2,500 reward toward information that will lead to an arrest, other offers of reward money came in, and they amount to about $20,000.

"I think this literally, pardon my French, really pissed off the whole ag community. Everybody we've talked to they're just outraged," Cortney Gasvoda said.

And seeing that support, and wanting to do something to help, Arleen Rice of Havre, a crop consultant and former president of the Montana Agriculture Business Association who knows the Gasvoda family, asked them if she could set up a donation account at Independence Bank. Rice, who described Gasvoda's as a humble and hardworking farm and ranch family, set up the Gasvoda Equipment Relief Fund account Monday.

"It's just a senseless act of vandalism, Rice said. " ... I called them as I saw those reward dollars going up because I'm thinking they're going to need some funds to try to recover from this, too. It maybe shouldn't all go to a reward."

The problem that most people don't understand, Rice added, is that if insurance pays, it pays the worth of the old equipment lost, not the price of new equipment, and that new equipment, from the sprayer to parts, tanks and everything also is in short supply right now.

"Hopefully if anybody has any information or if somebody talks. Even the smallest thing that somebody may have saw might be important so call law enforcement," she said.

"Whoever did this has no concept of the unbelievable strife they caused," Rice added.

Gasvoda said they are unused to the attention this incident has brought and they are unused to being in the position that they are on the receiving end of this level of support.

"It is so much appreciated, though," she said. "We'd like to thank the whole community. The outpouring of support is just amazing. So, I can tell my grandkids there's still good people in this world."

Adair said law enforcement in Chouteau and Blaine counties are working together on the string of incidents, which they are still investigating and asking for tips on.

People who may suspect they know or have seen something can contact Blaine County Sheriff's Office at 406-357-3260, Chouteau County Sheriff's Office at 406-622-5451 or contact Brian Gasvoda on Facebook.