Salem man still jailed in construction equipment thefts

Staff report

CORTLAND

A Salem man remains in the Trumbull County Jail in lieu of $300,000 bond in the theft of construction equipment worth $2 million.

The case of Robert L. Martin Jr., 46, of Salem-Unity Road, was bound over to a Trumbull County grand jury after a hearing in Eastern District Court in Brookfield.

Cortland police say Martin had been working on a project in the Cortland area since late winter, but police were called after he failed to remove equipment from the work site.

While trying to track down Martin, Detective Dave Morris entered information from the abandoned equipment through the National Insurance Crime Bureau databank, which indicated the equipment was stolen from various locations in Northeast Ohio.

Using search warrants, the Cortland police, Ohio State Highway Patrol and Goshen Township police served search warrants on two locations near Salem, recovering $1.5 million in stolen equipment.

An additional $500,000 in equipment was recovered in Cortland in what police are terming a “theft and chop-shop ring.”