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Come and get your stolen stuff
Some $400,000 in stolen property awaits its rightful owners, prosecutors say.
YOUNGSTOWN — After a one-year investigation of an alleged major theft and conspiracy ring, the Mahoning County grand jury charged 15 people in a 68-count indictment Thursday.
Almost $400,000 in stolen property has been recovered and is in a warehouse awaiting return to its rightful owners, said Kasey Shidel, assistant county prosecutor.
The defendants allegedly broke into businesses while they were closed, and into parked tractor-trailers, sometimes stealing trucks and trailers. In many cases, they’d cut the locks on gates to fenced-in areas and steal items that businesses stored outdoors, said county Prosecutor Paul J. Gains.
“These individuals would steal anything that was not nailed down,” Gains said. Items stolen included horse trailers, motorcycles, jet skis, lawn mowers, and large tractor mowers, he added.
“The operation was: Steal the item; get it into a third party’s hands, and have that third party sell it to either a knowing victim or an unknowing victim for resale,” Shidel said. “Money was exchanged very quickly, and it crossed jurisdictional lines.”
Charges in the indictment included breaking and entering, theft, receiving stolen property, complicity to breaking and entering, illegal use of food stamps, insurance fraud, obstructing justice and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity (RICO). RICO stands for racketeer influenced and corrupt organization.
Gains said the ringleaders were Bobby Joe Mock, 39, of Mahoning County Jail, who is charged with breaking and entering, thefts, receiving stolen property and RICO; Brian Bleggi, 41, of Black Oak Lane, breaking and entering, thefts, receiving stolen property and RICO; and Timothy Marino, 41, of Ridge Road, Cortland; receiving stolen property and RICO.
Others charged are:
UBrian Simione, 34, of Southern Boulevard, breaking and entering, theft, receiving stolen property and RICO.
ULaura Alli, 36, of Nashua Drive, breaking and entering, theft and RICO.
UAlbert Alli, 32, of Nashua Drive, breaking and entering, theft and RICO.
UAnthony Petrello, 41, of Canfield Road, breaking and entering, theft and RICO.
UMark Wells, 41, of Gladstone Road, North Jackson, receiving stolen property, and obstruction of justice (by scrapping a vehicle).
UDanyelle Stanley, 32, of Louise Rita Court, complicity to breaking and entering by allegedly helping Mock commit a breaking and entering.
UGennaro Bellard, 42, of Roosevelt Drive, breaking and entering and theft (10 motorcycles from Gollan Motorcycle Sales and Service in Youngstown on Jan. 10, 2006).
UMichael Cummings, 40, of Harrow Lane, insurance fraud for a fraudulent accident claim.
UJoseph DeMichael, 39, of Sandalwood Lane, breaking and entering and theft of motorcycles and a trailer from Blake’s Mini-Storage in Austintown.
URichard Shaffer, 50, of Salt Springs Road, Mineral Ridge, receiving stolen property (two commercial mowers from New Holland, Canfield).
UDavid Thistlewaite, 35, of Arthur Street, Canfield, 10 counts of receiving stolen property (motorcycles).
UThomas Turney, 52, of Shelby Road, one count of receiving stolen property (a motorcycle).
“Many of these individuals have already indicated a level of cooperation” with the prosecution, Gains said.
Among the businesses targeted were Wal-Mart in Boardman, Home Depot in Warren, and a host of area restaurants, car dealerships and other businesses. The defendants would steal frozen food from the restaurants and sell it, primarily to a West Side bar, Gains said.
Those participating in the investigation, which is ongoing, are the Ohio Organized Crime Commission, the Ohio attorney general’s office, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, the Mahoning County sheriff’s office, the Mahoning and Trumbull County prosecutor’s offices; Youngstown, Warren, Austintown, Boardman and Canfield police; Hubbard, Milton, Jackson, Liberty, Beaver, Weathersfield and Bazetta township police.