MOULTRIE, Ga. — A deer-hunting outing was profitable for a local man, who tracked down a stolen backhoe whose owner had offered a reward for its recovery.

Police arrested a man and his son at their residence, where they apparently had been using the Kubota tractor to dig a septic tank line. Jeremy Dickens reported the theft of the $32,000 tractor from Baker Funeral Home, where it was used for digging graves.

“On Monday (evening) the victim received a call from an alert community member who was hunting, and on his way to the deer stand saw a backhoe” that matched the one posted on the Facebook social networking site, Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office Inv. Austin Cannon said. “He also noticed it had an oversize bucket” like the stolen equipment.

Early Tuesday morning investigators searched the area near the intersection of Tallokas Road and Holmes Drive and found the tractor, Cannon said. At 1300 Holmes Drive they found a truck matching the one used to tow the Kubota away.

A video camera at a nearby business recorded a maroon four-door F-150 pickup truck pass by hauling a single-axle trailer, Cannon said. Some eight minutes later the same truck came back by the same camera towing the tractor.

Someone had changed the ignition on the tractor so that it could be cranked with a new key, Cannon said, but otherwise it was undamaged. He was not sure whether that was done in order to drive the tractor onto the trailer or at a later time after the theft.

With that evidence police obtained a search warrant for the Holmes Drive residence of Samir Escobar Perez and Samuel Perez Lopez, where the truck was located.

“We found keys to the new ignition in the house that belongs to Samir Perez,” Cannon said.

Further investigation linked Lopez to the theft, he said.

Police charged Perez, 18, with theft by taking and possession of tools for the commission of a crime.

Lopez, 40 was charged with theft by receiving stolen property.

It appeared the two planned to sell the tractor after competing their septic tank work, Cannon said.