Theodosia man uses tractor to flip enemies’ cars days after jail release

Sam Ellison
Sam Ellison, 58, of Theodosia, has been charged with four counts of property damage, three counts of harassment and three counts of armed criminal action and three counts of tampering with a motor vehicle in connection with a case in which he’s alleged to have used his tractor to damage a dozen vehicles, including using the tractor’s bucket to flip multiple cars over onto their tops.
According to the probable cause statement, at 7:26 p.m. Sept. 7, the OCSD dispatch office received a call from residents who said their vehicles had been broken into and damaged. They told the dispatcher that some of the vehicles had even been flipped over onto their tops.
Moss responded to the residence and spoke with the two vehicle owners. “The vehicles all had damage to their rear end with similar marks of straight-line horizontal dents as if a tractor bucket or something similar in nature had been rammed into the vehicles,” Moss said in the report.
While on scene and investigating the incident, Moss found a cellphone in the yard that didn’t belong to the victims or landowners. The phone was later identified as belonging to Ellison.
“I left the first residence and followed the victims down to another property close by to investigate more property damage of the same nature. I arrived and immediately observed multiple vehicles overturned on their sides and tops with similar marks matching the vehicles from the first residence. The same straight-line horizontal dents and scratches on the vehicles, as well as the tractor tire marks in the grass and dirt. There were a total of 10 vehicles damaged in the kerfuffle that Sam caused, including a tractor and a lawn mower as well as yard plants and decorations.
The report says that Ellison was released from the Ozark County Jail on Sept. 4 under supervision by Court Probationary Services in an unrelated case, which included him wearing an ankle monitor with a GPS tracker, showing his location to his probation officer at any time. According to the monitor, the crimes were committed sometime between Sept. 5-7, the report says.
A Facebook post about the incident on the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department’s Faceook page says that Ellison had been released from jail with the ankle monitor on Sept. 5 in an unrelated case of vandalism at a Theodosia bar. Two days later, the vehicle damage by a tractor was reported.
The post says that the victims of the second vandalism were unrelated to the first crime.
“Please leave family feuds to great literature and bingeable TV shows and out of our neighborhoods,” the OCSD Facebook post said.