WINTERPORT — Chief Deputy Joseph Smith of the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department said Wednesday that excellent detective work by Sgt. Gary Boynton and Rick Osgood of the department had led to the recovery of an estimated $50,000 worth of tools and equipment that had been reported stolen from a Monroe Road storage building March 10.

The building had been used by Todd Michaud of Presque Isle for storage. Smith said the deputies located the goods a week later in a Presque Isle potato house rented by Michaud’s father.

“Through investigation procedures we learned that if we were interested in finding the stolen items, they just might be in a certain potato house on Route 1 in Presque Isle,” Smith said.

Based on the tip, Smith said, Boynton and Osgood traveled to Aroostook County last weekend and, in conjunction with state troopers assigned to the Houlton Barracks of the Maine State Police, searched a potato house across the highway from E.J. Michaud & Sons.

“They found all of the stuff,” said Smith. He said the deputies were told by Fred Harmon, owner of the potato house, that the building had been rented last month by a member of the Michaud family.

Smith said a check with the Michaud’s insurance company revealed that company owner Edmund Michaud had filed a claim for the stolen merchandise March 12.

According to Smith, on the day that deputies searched the potato house the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department, as well as the insurance agent with whom the loss had been insured received a call from Edmund Michaud saying his son and others had moved the equipment without telling him.

Smith said charges were pending in the case.