Thieves steal late father's vehicle

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Months after losing his dad to cancer, Mark Steel hopes someone will help police catch the thief who stole his late father's pickup truck.

Mark Steel said, "It did mean a lot to me, a lot of memories in that truck with my kids and my father."

Steel purchased the champagne colored 2001 f250 from the family's driveway.

"I was definitely shocked when I came in the house and the truck was gone," said Steel.

Steel purchased his father's pickup truck about a year before his death.

He told FOX 5's Deidra Dukes, "My father has a farm in Hancock County we used the truck on a lot over the years, and I would go there on a pretty regular basis with my kids, and that was the truck we used".

It's been a tough year for the Steel family.

In July, a lightning strike sparked an electrical fire at the couple's home.

Less than two weeks later Mark's father died of pancreatic cancer.  In early September vandals broke into the couple's vacant home and covered the basement walls, windows and floor with red paint.

With no place to park his father's truck at their rental, Mark took it back to his house on September 22. When he returned to check on the residence that Tuesday afternoon, the truck was gone.

"There is some fresh scratch marks and gauges on the driveway in front of where I parked the truck so we think it was hauled off on some type of trailer or flatbed," said Steel.

Steel said in a way the thief stole more than truck, but the years of cherished memories of the good times Steel and his dad shared in the pickup.

Steel said, "You know when I purchased it that was part of the reason. I just didn't want him to sell it to just anybody. I wanted to have it not knowing that he would be passing in the next year."