A man who authorities say stole 29 head of cattle in Moody County and sold them in Mitchell has been arrested on two felony charges.

Joshua Jacob Nygaard, 33, was out of prison on parole when authorities arrested him on March 27 on charges of grand theft and third-degree burglary. Nygaard is accused of taking the cattle on Feb. 7 from a feedlot northwest of Dell Rapids and selling them the next day at Mitchell Livestock Auction.

At the time the cattle went missing, the Moody County Sheriff’s Department contacted as many livestock auction barns as it could, and the report of the incident was shared hundreds of times on Facebook.

Joe Geraets, who owned the cattle with his dad and two brothers, said at the time that he noticed tracks in the snow by his corral, and that led him to call the sheriff. When he counted the animals in a feedlot of 153, he came up 29 short.

The heifers weighed about 600 pounds when taken, and the family intended to feed them until they were about 1,000 pounds each, he said. They were valued at about $1,000 each and were not insured, he said.

The cattle were sold to two buyers, one near Freeman and one in Iowa, said Sheriff Troy Wellman. They are allowed to keep the animals, and Geraets would have to seek restitution for his loss through the legal process. Money was not recovered in the case, Wellman said.

The case was solved through cooperation of law enforcement, business and the public, he said. “The Mitchell Livestock Auction played a huge part in it,” he said. Once the business discovered cattle were missing, they called and reported that a person unfamiliar to the business had sold 29 head. From that tip, authorities were able to interview Nygaard, he said.

At the time, law enforcement said whoever took the heifers used a trailer taken from a Sioux Falls business to transport the animals. That continues to be part of the case but would be handled in Minnehaha County, Wellman said.

Several citizens called in leads in the case, which law enforcement followed up on, he said. “We spent quite a bit of manpower and man hours between us and the DCI tracking down leads.”

Nygaard, who was arrested at his parole officer’s office, is being held in the Minnehaha County jail without bond. His bond on the Moody County charges is $10,000 cash. He has previous felony convictions. Nygaard may last have lived in Union County but his current address is unknown, said Paul Lewis, Moody County State’s Attorney.

Nygaard has previous convictions for theft in Lyon and Plymouth counties in Iowa, as well.

If convicted of the Moody County charges, grand theft charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in the state penitentiary and a $20,000 fine. Third-degree burglary is punishable by up to five years in the penitentiary and a $10,000 fine.