FT. COLLINS, Colo. (KDVR) — For years the Colorado nonprofit Outdoor Buddies has been helping people get out into the outdoors who normally would not be able to. On Thursday, a vital piece of equipment was stolen from them in Larimer County, a flatbed trailer. 

Since 1984 Outdoor Buddies has been helping people get back into the outdoors who they say have been deprived of that experience.

“It was a vet and a gentleman that had cerebral palsy from birth and he’s wheelchair-bound and so were both out on the same hunt,” Larry Sanford, Outdoor Buddies president said.

Equipment is vital for the nonprofit to get as many folks as possible to the outdoors, around 500 people every year. Sanford would know, he lost his arm to a work-related accident. 

“I got electrocuted and lost all kind of pieces and parts and got burned 80% of my body and so I know what it’s like not to be able to go in the outdoors,” Sanford said.

On Thursday morning in Larimer County near Loveland, somebody decided to steal Outdoor Buddies’ flatbed trailer.

“That trailer was a piece of adaptive equipment,” Sanford said.

The trailer, made by Big Texan, is a 14-foot heavy-duty dual axle flatbed that played a vital role in Outdoor Buddies’ mission. They bought it brand new in 2016 for $8,000. The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office says trailer thefts are up. 

“You can’t offer these programs unless you have that equipment,” Sanford said.

Luckily, the trailer was found on Friday but now police are searching for a suspect or suspects.

Anyone with information on the theft is asked to call the LCSO at 970-416-1985.