Three of four stolen snowmobiles recovered near McFarland Lake and the BWCA

On Saturday, Mar. 4, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office was notified of two abandoned snowmobiles on Little John Lake near the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. According to the Cook County Sheriff’s Department, the snowmobiles appeared to have been there for a while. No visible tracks or other markings were present to show how the snowmobiles had arrived in that location from the trailer where they were taken.

Further investigation revealed a third abandoned snowmobile located on nearby McFarland Lake toward the end of the Arrowhead Trail.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officer Hudson Ledeen and U.S. Forest Service Officer Ed Belmore recovered the three stolen snowmobiles that were abandoned at the edge of the BWCA.

Local law enforcement originally responded to a call on Feb. 17 of a theft, including four snowmobiles and various equipment from an enclosed snowmobile trailer parked on South Fowl Road.

The lock on an enclosed snowmobile trailer was cut, and the four snowmobiles and equipment removed, according to a law enforcement report from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. The owner of the snowmobiles, Robert Tomczak, Jr., is from Carlton, Minn.

According to the report shared with WTIP from the sheriff’s department: Tomczak told dispatch that he last saw the snowmobiles on Sunday, Feb. 12. There were no tracks leading to or from the snowmobile trailer as it rained heavily in Cook County between the time Tomczak last saw the snowmobiles and when he reported them missing.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a suspect or suspects involved with the theft of four snowmobiles on the Arrowhead Trail in Cook County.

Anyone with any information on the theft is asked to call the Cook County Sheriff’s Office at 218-387-3030.

Kalli Hawkins March 8, 2023