MILTON — Mark Harris, of Middleburg, got quite a shock when he arrived at the truck stop in Turbot Township before dawn Tuesday morning.

The 40-foot trailer loaded with $26,000 worth of steel beams he had dropped off Thursday night was gone.

“Someone saw it sitting there, backed a tractor up to it, cut the lock off and left,” he said.

Harris, an independent trucker, had picked up the 26 steel beams in Columbia City, Ind., on Nov. 18 but couldn’t get a delivery date at the destination in Langhorne until Nov. 24. He dropped the trailer at the truck stop last week, something he’s done for years.

“This is the first time in 22 years this has happened to me,” Harris said. “It’s a well-lit area, but they don’t have any cameras at that area.”

Harris explained that he had attached a lock to the brake system of the trailer, which he had recently overhauled. Whoever took the rig had a fair amount of work to cut off the lock, he said. He speculates that it was taken sometime Sunday, because another driver who arrived Monday night around 9 p.m. told him the trailer was gone at that time.

The steel beams most likely ended up in a scrapyard, Harris said. Each beam had a code stamped into it that would identify it, so it’s unlikely the steel could be resold for use, he continued.

State police at Milton are investigating the theft of the trailer and its load. The aluminum Benson trailer is valued at $15,000 and the load of beams at $26,000, according to police. The trailer and load were insured, Harris said.

“I’d like to get my trailer back,” Harris said. “I’ve done a lot of work on it, and now I don’t have it to use.”