LAPORTE, Ind. – Many Allis-Chalmers items were stolen from the Rumely Allis-Chalmers Heritage Center sometime within the last month. 

“Somebody knew what they were going after,” said Paul Rymer, of Mill Creek, who serves on the museum’s board of directors and who was also the owner of the stolen equipment. 

The museum is located along Indiana 2 next to the LaPorte County Fairgrounds, about 20 miles from Lake Michigan.

Rymer, a long time Allis-Chalmers collector, said the stolen items included an Allis-Chalmers G model tractor probably from the 1950s and a lawn mower tractor likely produced in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

He said the G model tractor had a full set of cultivators on it.

“It was kind of rare. You don’t find them usually together,” he said.

Also taken were two sickle bar cutters once commonly used to cut hay, a front axle assembly from an Allis-Chalmers 7000 series tractor, a portable power unit and a two row planter.

The power unit was basically the front end of an Allis-Chalmers tractor containing an engine with a pulley Rymer was planning to use like a generator to power his residence during outages.

Rymer said he purchased the items from an auction in June of last year and took them to the museum about a year later to display in a show dedicated strictly to Allis-Chalmers equipment.

Rymer told investigators the items were at the museum in mid-September but were gone when he showed up at the museum again two weeks later.

“Every piece was gone,” he said.

Since there were no drag marks on the ground, police said heavy equipment was likely used to pick up the pieces and place them on a trailer for transport away from the site.

Rymer said none of the engines on the tractors were running since they were strictly for display.

“They had to spend some time out there to load this stuff up and take it away,” he said.

Rymer estimated the value of the stolen items at roughly $10,000.

Police are hoping to find surveillance video that may have been taken during the theft to provide a major break in the case.

LaPorte County Police Capt. Derek Allen said other investigative strategies include searching for the items on websites offering merchandise like eBay and Facebook Marketplace along with scrap yards.

Another possibility is the items were stolen just for the parts to sell to collectors. “I wish we had all of the answers,” he said.

Allen is hoping someone can provide a tip to uncover who was responsible. “Nothing is off the table at this point,” he said.

Rymer said his love for Allis-Chalmers equipment dates back to when his wife, who grew up on a farm, worked at the plant in LaPorte for 10 years before the doors shut in the early 1980s.

He also visited the plant on a regular basis to work on the telephones as an employee of GTE, the General Telephone and Electronics Corporation.

The museum also features tractors and other machinery produced by Rumely, a once leading producer of farm machinery in LaPorte starting in the late 1800s.

The museum is open every first Saturday of the month from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.