The Saline County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the theft of a transmitter used to map underground utilities.

Sheriff Glen Kochanowski tells KSAL News that a worker with USIC of Wichita was using a $3,000 Dynatel 2250 transmitter in the 5900 block of W. State Street on Friday to locate some underground lines.

The worker told deputies she had the transmitter hooked into a phone line junction box near the Rolling Hills hay barn but lost a signal for an unknown reason.

The worker left the scene for a short time to investigate the signal interruption and when she returned discovered the transmitter and a bag of tools had been stolen.

Total loss is estimated is $3,250.