Reported Catawba Ridge theft was a mistake among contractors, Fort Mill police say.

The reported theft of a major piece of construction equipment from a school building site was in fact miscommunication between contractors, police say.

“That was a misunderstanding between two separate work crews out there,” said Maj. Bryan Zachary with the Fort Mill Police Department.

A boom lift went missing from the Catawba Ridge High School construction site. A waterproofing company worker told Fort Mill police the lift was taken some time on or prior to July 26. The lift is valued at $28,500.

Zachary said while the machinery was reported as stolen, it was determined one work crew mistakenly thought it was theirs and took it from the site.

“They found out who it was, and they got that resolved,” he said.

Joe Burke, spokesperson for the school district, confirmed the issue was a mistake and not theft.

“A subcontractor removed the equipment from the site mistakenly believing it was part of their equipment on site,” he said. “The contractor who owned the equipment did file a police report initially but it was quickly determined what actually happened. The equipment was returned to the site and the police report and insurance claims have been withdrawn.”

Items going missing at construction sites isn’t uncommon. It isn’t just school sites, either. With all the construction going on in ever-growing Fort Mill, there are typically several reports each month. Most are much smaller than the boom lift incident, from personal tools or copper wire gone missing to smaller construction vehicles.

The Catawba Ridge construction, among the largest ongoing work sites in town, has had several reports of items taken. Just on July 30, police responded to a call there where a contractor told them a custom four-way bucket for a CAT skid steer was stolen. That incident is classified as grand larceny. The value of the bucket was reported at $2,500.

There was a boom lift visible to traffic on Thursday, as work continues on the new school. Boom lifts, sometimes called a cherry pickers and used to lift workers or equipment for tall jobs, are common on multi-story jobs. Work has been ongoing in recent days at the center of the new school on Fort Mill Parkway.

The main entrance to the school, shown in construction documents and in a virtual tour video released by the Fort Mill School District, reaches three stories high.

Catawba Ridge is set to open in 2019. It will be the third high school in the Fort Mill School District.

The two recent larceny reports follow a couple of unusual summer incidents at Fort Mill schools.

On July 23, police responded to Fort Mill High School, where they were told a Pyle 800 watt speaker was taken from the dance room. Police say a subcontractor employee putting in carpet at another part of the school was seen on security camera footage entering the dance room with a large bag and leaving three minutes later with what appears, the report states, to be a much fuller bag. The employee then loaded the bag into a truck.

The dance room wasn’t having work done on it at the time. School administration noticed the speaker was missing after the worker left with the bag.

The same day, police responded to Banks Trail Middle School after a call about a trash truck on fire. Police found a blue commercial trash truck in the rear parking lot with, according to the report, “an active fire in the rear garbage compartment.” The trash truck driver said he didn’t know how the fire started. Fort Mill firefighters responded and put it out, and police didn’t notice any observable damage to the school or school grounds.

This story was originally published August 1, 2018 at 2:37 PM.