HAYES -- Police say thieves used their own trucks to steal thousands of dollars worth of stone from a Gloucester County business.

The company, C.W. Davis Construction, sells the materials to contractors for construction and road projects.

Charles Davis says someone used a master key to open the locked gate to his property and stole 80 tons of stone normally used in driveways and roadbeds.

"I think it's tight times," he said. "I think people in the trucking business are desperate because fuel is $4 a gallon. I think pushed into desperate situations, people do desperate things."

Davis says he will happily pay $1,000 if someone gives the Sheriff's Department the tip needed to catch the thieves.

"I wa shoping a high number, $1,000, may be enough for someone to say, 'Oh yeah, Saturday,'" said Davis.

Davis believes the criminals are in the construction business and says they knew how to move a tractor trailer that was parked in their way.

"They slo had to have a key to a case bulldozer, because it didn't have a key in it," Davis said. "Whoever it was knew the construction business."

Davis' main plant is in the upper part of the county, but he uses his Gloucester County facility to store materials for jobs closer to the peninsula. He has been in the area 37 years and says this is the first time there has been a problem.

He says it probably took an hour for the thieves to drive off with the four dumptruck loads of stone.

If you have any information on this crime, please contact police.