Copper, steel stolen, along with trailers

By ELISE FRANCO

Two trailers containing more than 85,000 pounds of copper and steel were stolen over a two-day period.

AUSTINTOWN — Almost $150,000 worth of copper and steel was lost in two separate incidents, after the trailers containing the goods were stolen.

The thefts occurred within two days of each other, after each of the drivers left the unhitched trailers in separate parking lots so their trucks could be serviced.

Detective Kathy Dina, of the Austintown Police Department, said she’s looked into both drivers and believes the fact that they were both having work done when the thefts occurred is merely a coincidence.

“The drivers’ stories pan out,” she said. “It’s confirmed that they were where they said they were, and it doesn’t seem like they’re involved.”

Dina said she’s not positive about what happens with such large amounts of stolen metals. But she assumes they will be sold for their face value, potentially out of state.

A driver for Ocean Trucking Inc., of Miami, Fla., said that at about 9:45 p.m. Saturday, he dropped his trailer, containing more than 42,500 pounds of copper bars, at a parking area on Clarkins Drive so that he could have his rig serviced.

When he returned just after midnight Sunday, he said the 53-foot box trailer and its contents, worth an estimated $120,000, were missing.

A police report noted that the copper bars are owned by Precision of Ohio Inc. in Austintown.

The driver said he searched other local truck lots for the trailer.

Two days earlier, a driver for Cheetah Transportation, of Mooresville, N.C., said he dropped his trailer, containing six steel coils that totaled 45,000 pounds, off in the southeast parking lot of FYDA Freightliner in Youngstow, while he had work done on his rig.

“I got there around noon on Thursday, and I didn’t notice [the trailer] was missing until a little after 4 p.m. on Friday,” the driver from Cheetah Transportation said.

Dina said the estimated cost of the steel coils, which are owned by Jennmar Corp., in Reedsville, W.Va., is $12,000.

Chuck Hooper, plant manager for Jennmar, said in the five years he’s worked for the company, nothing like this has happened before.

“I’m sure there’s insurance to take care of this,” he said. “Not only from us, but from the trucking company that was hauling the material.”

No one from Precision of Ohio Inc. was available to comment.

Dina said she will continue to investigate the thefts and said they are most likely connected.

“I think it’s probably the same group of people who took both,” she said. “It’s the same M.O.”