MEXICO – The owner of Archie’s Inc. is offering a $1,000 reward for the return of a garbage truck that was stolen from the business’s yard three weeks ago.

Alan Archibald said the large, white truck with the number 70 painted on the front was not insured for theft.

Its replacement value is about $100,000.

He said he had heard several rumors of where the truck might be, ranging from the bottom of a pond in Carthage, to a psychic visualizing it at the end of a dirt road in the woods of Rangeley.

Someone reported seeing the truck about a week ago on Route 219 heading toward West Paris. Another person said they had seen it on an all-terrain vehicle trail in Turner.

The 1999 Freightliner garbage collection truck was stolen from Archie’s Inc. River Road lot between 6 p.m., Sept. 27, and 7 a.m., Sept. 28.

Archibald is hoping that now that the leaves are falling from the trees, an air search may turn up the vehicle. Air searches have been conducted a couple of times since the theft but turned up nothing.

“I’ve never had a truck stolen before. The city is moving north,” said Archibald Tuesday afternoon.

The company did have a backhoe taken a few years ago, but it was quickly located.

Anyone with information on the truck’s whereabouts is asked to call Archibald at 364-2425, or the Mexico Police Department at 364-5686.