At 4 a.m., with heavy snow piling and mercury crashing, Sawyer Wise woke to the unexpected rumble of a diesel engine on his isolated Hawkeye farm. Roused from bed, he shuffled toward wide kitchen windows overlooking the property and caught the blink of red tractor lights fading into darkness a quarter mile down his driveway.
Surrounded by a tightknit rural community of row crop growers and cattlemen, Wise’s reaction was gratitude. A kindhearted neighbor, he assumed, was already clearing driveways. Thankful for a helping hand, Wise, 30, eased back across his home, checked on two toddler daughters, and slipped under the covers beside his wife.
Five hours later, storm ebbing, Wise layered up and exited his backdoor, expecting a morning of chores. Instead, he confronted telltale signs of trouble: visible boot prints and a drive still covered in deep snow.
Trailing prints stamped in fresh powder, dread and anger danced up Wise’s spine, along with the realization of theft: a John Deere 4430 tractor gone from the machine shed, a zero-turn Ferris mower buried in drifts, and a missing bag of Milwaukee tools. Brazen larceny in blizzard conditions and subzero temps—on a farm located in the back of beyond.
A manhunt was about to commence, and Wise was standing dead center of a surreal crime spree and fundamental violation of farm and family.
On the Fringe
On the night of February 19, 2026, in the extreme corner of northeast Iowa, a skip from the Minnesota line, Winneshiek County nightshift deputies were overwhelmed by wild, winter weather. Past midnight, scattered across a rural region characterized by plentiful hills and pastures, vehicles were sliding and stacking alongside highways and backroads.
At 2 a.m., Sheriff Dan Marx’s cell rang with news of stranded motorists and snowplows slipping sideways, all with only one wrecker service covering 690 square miles of hazard.
Climbing into a Chevy Silverado pickup, Marx drove away from his home, out of a valley, and into what some locals later described as one of the worst storms in 40 years. Hekuva night for Marx: freezing temps and 30 concurrent vehicle incidents.
By 9 a.m., Friday morning, February 20, the chaos had ebbed. En route to assist deputies with a stalled vehicle in the northern reaches of Winneshiek County, Marx received a peculiar call from Detective Chris Wuebker, regarding a John Deere 4430 tractor and Ferris mower stolen in the northeast neck of the county.
Marx’s truck diverted east, along semi-passable roads flanked by bluffs and woods, bound for the remote 220-acre farm property of Sawyer Wise. With Det. Wuebker almost on his heels, Marx was first on scene.
“It was really remote, very pretty and hilly. There was a long, long lane leading to the farm. I drove down it to speak with the farmer and about halfway along or so, I saw a lawnmower in the snow. It was stuck off the side of the lane and looked like someone had tried to drive it away. Literally, it was buried in snow and if it hadn’t been mentioned in the initial report, I might not have known specifically what it was.”
Having dealt with every facet of crime across a 27-year career in law enforcement, Marx was about to connect the ill-fitting pieces of an odd puzzle. “There’s no limit to the nature of what we see in this line of work,” he says, “but this one was on the fringe.”
Pickups and Pistols
Perched roughly 1 mile from the closest neighbor and 30 miles from the nearest town of Decorah, Sawyer Wise’s farm property, in proximity to trout streams and abundant hills, is a piece of God’s country: 220 acres covered in-season by corn, soybeans, and alfalfa, along with a cow-calf operation.
His ranch-style home, a half mile off a gravel road, hides beside a detached garage, barn, and several sheds, along with multiple silos and grain bins. “We’re got a pretty large grove of pine trees around us that are tall, about 60’,” Wise describes. “You really can’t see our house or farm buildings from the road. You don’t accidentally find this place.”
In the pitch black of early Feb. 20, Wise stirred to the grumble of a John Deere 4430.
“I looked out my kitchen and could see flashing lights about halfway down the driveway of what looked like a tractor,” Wise recalls. “But I couldn’t tell if it was mine or even what kind it was. We live in wonderful place and people are always doing helpful stuff. Thinking the best of where I live, I thought for sure one of my friends was plowing snow. Neighbors helping neighbors, with no thanks needed, is normal for this area.”
“Also, I had no tractors plugged in that night,” he adds. “My tractors are older, and in our northeast Iowa winters, generally, if you don’t have a tractor plugged in, it’s probably not going to start if it’s an older machine.”
Hours later, finding his farm robbed of machinery and tools, Wise hopped in his pickup and began following the tire tracks of his own tractor. On his side, a pistol. Bullet in the chamber.
Facts and Felonies
“Right off the bat, I found my Ferris zero-turn buried up to the seat,” Wise recalls. “I kept going, turned out of my driveway onto the road, and about a mile down, I saw a red minivan that had clearly been stuck, and tractor tires leading directly to it. No driver or passengers around.”
The minivan carried Clayton County (caddy corner southeast to Winneshiek County) license plates. Wise rubbed down the windows, peered through the glass, and saw junk, trash, and—Milwaukee tools.
“Looked like an out-of-towner. Looked like drug-related activity. My mind immediately went to one guy who lives in our immediate area with a history of methamphetamine. In some way, I figured the van was connected to him. This wasn’t about getting a van unstuck. There was much more going on, despite how this was portrayed by the media.”
As initial details emerged, news coverage and social media shaded the narrative of a coldhearted farmer, overzealous sheriff, and an innocent man stuck in a snowbank who borrowed a tractor. No malice; just misunderstanding.
However, the stubborn facts point to felony.
Bagging a Thief
Standing beside his farm structures at roughly 10 a.m., Wise gave Marx and Wuebker a rundown of the suspect’s entrance and exit. “I pointed out where my property was stored because things were in separate buildings, and I’d tried not to touch a thing, because I wanted the sheriff to see the situation as I’d seen it.”
While showing Marx and Wuebker the boot prints and shed locations, Wise’s phone rang.
His wife, inside the house and staring out the bay windows, was calling. “She said, ‘Do you see it? There’s a tractor parked toward the end of our driveway. I can’t see anyone, but it’s parked out there.’”
At Wise’s physical distance, he neither had seen the tractor approach or heard the engine. As Wise relayed the surprise, Marx hustled to his truck and spun up the lane in hot pursuit.
“Sure enough, there was a John Deere sitting hundreds of yards away that hadn’t been there just minutes before,” Marx recalls. “The tractor was empty, but a window was busted out and there were footprints leading away. I couldn’t see anyone, but I kept driving.”
Turning onto the road, Marx saw a figure legging up the shoulder. “He wasn’t running, but he was moving, certainly trying to flee. I caught up behind him and he raised his hands and gave up.”
And the whodunnit suspect? Timothy Schmitt, braced with a rap sheet including firearms, drugs, and theft violations.
In detention, Schmitt recounted his tale to Wuebker, portraying himself as a stranded motorist who borrowed ag equipment to pull a vehicle out of ditch during extreme weather, and then returned the machinery.
Per the subsequent police report: Schmitt admitted that during the snowstorm he got his minivan stuck in the ditch about a mile away. Schmitt admitted that he took the zero-turn lawnmower to pull his stuck minivan out of the ditch, but got the lawnmower stuck in the driveway. He then went back to the machine shed and took the 4430 John Deere tractor to pull his minivan out of the ditch. Once Schmitt successfully had the van out of the ditch, the van remained stuck in the snow on the roadway. Schmitt then drove the tractor to a nearby friend’s house for a few hours. Upon attempting to bring the tractor back to the victim’s machine shed, Schmitt then put the tractor in a different ditch, breaking a window out of the cab. Schmitt proceeded to maneuver the tractor out of the ditch and made it about halfway down the driveway before realizing deputies were at the residence. Schmitt left the tractor and fled on foot.
Who ya gonna believe? Me or your lyin’ eyes?
Damning Tools
The tractor tire tracks told their own tale.
“First of all, in my opinion, drugs were either being taken or dealt, or both,” Wise says. “The tractor tracks led right from the minivan to my distant neighbor who has a documented meth history.”
“At some point in the night, Schmitt got his minivan stuck. He walked to my place and stole the riding lawnmower to pull himself out? No. That’s not logical. That tells me either drugs or something else is at the root. We know he got the riding mower stuck, left it, and then stole the tractor to pull himself out.”
After extricating the minivan, Schmitt then drove the tractor to a third location approximately 4 miles to the home of Wise’s neighbor, where the vehicle remained for roughly five hours.
“The tracks led right to my neighbor with a prior for meth,” Wise says. “And I believe that’s the only reason the tractor was returned in the first place. At some point, I suspect my neighbor told Schmidt something like, ‘Get this tractor back where it belongs because I don’t want any trouble coming to my house.’”
The 4430 had visible external damage. The left side window was shattered and the front side shield dented. Wise was far more concerned with the internals. “That tractor had sat all winter, not plugged in, and now I’ll have to find out what kind of damage he did by running it with no warmup.”
While the tractor and tracks provided a roadmap of evidence, the tools were damning.
Either during the theft of the mower, or during the theft of the tractor, Schmitt entered a separate shed and stole an assortment of machine tools.
Per the police report: Upon further investigation Schmitt also admitted to stealing Milwaukee tools from an outbuilding. Deputies were able to recover the tools that were still in his minivan stuck in the snow on the roadway.
“It’s plain,” Wise says. “He helped himself to a bag of tools. He sure wasn’t bringing those back. The media’s story they ran with was an innocent guy who just made a couple of bad choices in a snowstorm. Nope. This guy is a thief and put my family in jeopardy.”
“Truth Got Flipped”
Timothy Schmitt was charged with a Class C felony for third degree burglary and an aggravated misdemeanor for operating a vehicle without owner’s consent.
However, Wise predicts the case will end with a revolving door.
“Here’s the problem, and it’s the same problem other communities in other states face. We’re lucky to have a great county sheriff and his deputies that are very diligent. They support rural people and protect us, and support us protecting ourselves. They catch the criminals and do their job. But when they turn those same criminals over to the court system, that’s where unreasonable leniency happens. There’s a slap on the wrist and the bad guys are right back on the street and right back to victimizing someone else. It ends up where the judicial system undermines the power of our local law enforcement.”
“And then to make things even worse, you have the media running headlines that make the sheriff’s office look they’re playing rough, make me look cruel, and make the thief look like an unfortunate bystander stuck in a storm,” Wise adds. “The truth got flipped.”
And the truth, Marx echoes, is found in Schmitt’s actions.
“First, in my opinion, this was never, never about a man down on his luck,” Marx notes. “It’s important to remember this guy stole several hundred dollars’ worth of Milwaukee tools that he had no intention of returning. Second, my opinion, also, is that the tractor wasn’t returned because doing so was the right thing. Third, Schmitt left that tractor damaged with a broken window and offered the farmer no explanation and no compensation, and he was more than willing to leave the farmer’s lawnmower completely buried in the snow and potentially damaged.”
“Bottom line,” Marx concludes, “if everything was innocent, he would have stuck around and made things right. My opinion is this was far, far from an innocent situation.”
Tolerance Ends
The theft of Wise’s property ended with tractor damage. However, Wise emphasizes, the next family may not be so fortunate. As in, things go sideways in a hurry when a criminal steals from a farmer under cover of darkness and passes within feet of the house and rooms where a wife and children sleep.
“Don’t tell me this is about a stolen tractor or stuck van,” Wise says, in a measured, but firm tone. “I’ve got a young family and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect them. We’re armed around here and we know how to handle a firearm. I’m not looking to shoot anyone dead, but if I’d have realized someone was prowling around where it’s my right and duty to keep my family safe, things would have ended very differently.”
“I can handle a lot of things and extend mercy. I hope the guy who did this gets help and straightens out his life,” Wise concludes. “But when my wife and kids are put any level of risk, my tolerance ends.”
For more from Chris Bennett (@ChrisBennettMS or cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:
When Conservation Backfires: Landowner Defeats Feds in Mindboggling Private Property Case
Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reaves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Never Told
How the Deep State Tried, and Failed, to Crush an American Farmer
Game of Horns: Iowa Poacher’s Antler Addiction Leads to Historic Bust
Ghost Cattle: $650M Ponzi Rocks Livestock Industry, Money Still Missing
