Felony charges filed in $2M Trumbull County construction thefts

Staff report

CORTLAND

Robert L. Martin, 46, of Salem-Unity Road in Salem, faces three felony charges of receiving stolen property after police found $2 million in stolen construction equipment at his home and other property he owns.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol, Cortland Police, Goshen Township Police, and Salem Police conducted an investigation with the National Insurance Crime Bureau into the thefts.

Martin is in Trumbull County Jail in lieu of $300,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in Eastern District Court in Brookfield Thursday morning.

Investigators executed search warrants Thursday and Friday near Salem after an initial investigation by the Cortland Police Department resulted in the recovery of $500,000 worth of stolen construction equipment at an undisclosed location in Cortland.

The search warrants recovered an additional $1.5 million worth of stolen heavy equipment and commercial tractor trailers in a field at the intersection of state Route 14 and 165 in Goshen Township and at Martin’s home.

Martin also owns the property in Goshen Township, which the highway patrol said was operating as a commercial chop-shop where stolen semi-trailers and their loads were being cut up for scrap.

Detective David Morris of the Cortland Police Department said investigators do not want to reveal the locations from which the equipment was stolen.

The highway patrol asks anyone who has done business with Martin or his company, Yukon Construction, to call the highway patrol’s theft unit at 330-898-2945, ext. 30.