On Saturday, May 11, 2013, at around 3:00 AM, the Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing team transporter was stolen from the teams race shop in Mooresville, N.C. The value with the contents included is well over $250,000. Rowan County Sheriffs Department and Detective Carl Dangerfield is pursuing leads and has issued arrest warrants in connection with this case. ‘It is my sole concern to get the transporter back so that we can make Friday nights Camping World Truck Series race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway’ said Cobb. ‘We are working with other teams right now to borrow the necessary items in the event our hauler and its contents are not returned. We are pleased with the diligent work that the Rowan County Sheriffs Department has shown in solving this crime.” Any information on the whereabouts of the stolen property can be directed to the lead investigator, Detective Carl Dangerfield 704-216-8711.(Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing PR)(5-15-2013) UPDATE: The Rowan County Sheriffs Office said it has issued warrants for the arrest of Mike Joseph Harmon and Sheila Rae Rice for felony larceny and breaking and entering in connection with the case. It values the hauler and contents at $279,000. Harmon, a NASCAR driver and team owner primarily in the Nationwide Series, has worked with Cobb in the past. Harmon used to be the team manager for Cobbs Nationwide team.( Sporting News )(5-15-2013) UPDATE 2: Mike Harmon tweeted twice Wednesday evening, ‘I want it known that I have never stolen so much as a piece of bubble gum in my life. I did not take JJC hauler, there is no video of me anywhere near her shop. Today she was the windshield & I was the bug, but when we get in FEDERAL court in a couple wks theres a boulder coming”.(5-15-2012) UPDATE 3: A NASCAR driver is out on bond after deputies in Cleveland County arrested him and charged him with stealing a competitors trailer from a Rowan County business park. He says he didnt do it. According to the Cleveland County Sheriffs Office, Mike Harmon was arrested on Wednesday afternoon and charged with breaking and entering a motor vehicle and felony larceny. He was later released from the jail on a $10,000 bond. Harmon told WBTV that he has a strong alibi, he wasnt even in the state. He says he was in Darlington, SC for the race over the weekend, watching a friend drive his car in the Darlington 500. Investigators told WBTV on Thursday morning that they are still working to recover the stolen trailer. Harmon has attempted to get the trailer back in the past, through the court system, but the ruling went against him, investigators say. The Rowan County Sheriffs Office want the public to know that if someone is hiding the trailer until the situation gets sorted out, they could be charged with receiving stolen goods – a felony charge.( WBTV )(5-16-2013) UPDATE 4: Two days after racing in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, NASCAR driver Mike Harmon found himself being charged, again, by Rowan County Sheriffs detectives in an ongoing feud hes having with fellow driver and Camping World Truck Series team owner Jennifer Jo Cobb. On Sunday, Harmon was charged with obstruction of justice and released on $20,000 bond. Harmon is accused of stealing Cobbs race hauler. On Friday night he had his cell phone confiscated by deputies as they investigate the crime. Deputies are reportedly using his cell phone to track Harmons GPS, text messages and phone calls. Another man, David Novak, is charged with conspiring to commit felony larceny and obstructing justice for admitting to deputies that he knew the location of the trailer but did not tell investigators. Novak is the former business partner of Cobb.( WBTV )(5-21-2013) UPDATE 5: Mike Harmon knew where the Jennifer Jo Cobb hauler was located and initially told police he would release it to them as long as they didnt return it to Cobb, according to a probable cause affidavit released by the Rowan County Sheriffs Office. Cobbs hauler, is part of an ongoing property dispute between Cobb and her former business partner David Novak. Novak, who was romantically involved with Cobb before they stopped working together in 2012, claims in a lawsuit filed in federal court that Cobb took the hauler from storage at Harmons shop in January. His motion for an injunction against Cobb and for the return of the hauler was denied in February, and Cobb alleges in a document filed Thursday that Novak ‘hired others to proceed to misappropriate” property from her shop. A warrant was issued for the arrest of Novak on Saturday on an obstruction of justice charge and a charge of conspiring to commit felony larceny. According to the arrest warrant, Novak allegedly conspired with Harmon to steal the hauler and he acknowledged to a Rowan County detective that he knew where the hauler was but would not reveal its location. Novak, who lives in Illinois, has not turned himself in. Harmon, who worked for Novak as a team manager for the Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing team in 2010, and Harmons girlfriend already had been arrested Wednesday on charges of felony larceny and breaking and entering. An additional charge against Harmon of obstruction of justice was added Saturday, and Harmon also was forced to give up his cell phone, which could indicate his whereabouts when the hauler was stolen at approximately 3 a.m. May 11. Harmon told reporters Thursday he has paperwork that shows Novak is the one who bought the hauler and equipment from Circle Bar Racing. When asked Thursday if he knew where the hauler was, Harmon told reporters he did not and that he was on his way back from Darlington at the time the hauler was taken. Harmon was asked point-blank by reporters if it was his cab that pulled the hauler out. He said: ‘No.” He also was asked if he knew what happened to the hauler: ‘I definitely dont (know)’ he said. That is different from what a Rowan County police detective believes and what he testified Harmon told him. According to a probable cause affidavit released Tuesday, a Rowan County detective testified that two days after the hauler was stolen, Harmon ‘indicated he knew where the car hauler was located but would not reveal that information unless I promised him it would not be returned to the victim’ according to the affidavit. The detective said Harmon told him May 14 that he would deliver the hauler to the sheriffs department at 8 a.m. the next day. ‘Mr. Harmon did not return the car hauler & as he had promised’ the detective said in the affidavit. ‘I called Mr. Harmon and he stated he had changed his mind and was prepared to be arrested if necessary.” The detective said in the affidavit that Harmons semi matches the video surveillance of the truck that towed Cobbs hauler away and that a car whose license plate matches that of the car of Harmons girlfriend was seen at the Cobb shop at the time of the crime. ( Sporting News )
