Police are investigating the theft of a large machine belt from a south Salina roadway Friday evening.

When an employee of Shilling Construction of Manhattan exited Interstate 135 at Schilling Road, he felt a bump that he thought was the curb, Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester said Monday. When the driver got to a nearby store, however, he realized that a 44-inch x 148-inch belt from a Roadtec RX900 asphalt milling machine had fallen off his truck, Forrester said. When the driver returned to the 700 block of West Schilling Road, the belt was gone, Forrester added.

Surveillance video from a nearby business shows a white male in a long-sleeve shirt and blue jeans loading the belt into a dark-colored pickup with a white sticker in the upper right back window, Forrester said.

The stolen belt was valued at $5,000, he said.