MITCHELL – A Bloomington man is facing theft and burglary charges after a Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department Central Dispatch received a report on Wednesday, January 25th at 2:40 p.m. that copper had been stolen from a job site at 55 Lehigh Lane in Mitchell.
Officer Calvin Callahan responded and learned that approximately $6,000 worth of scrap copper wiring had been stolen by an employee of a contractor who was working at Lehigh Cement. The wiring was being stored in a secure area on Ball Road.
The two men who reported the theft said they knew who stole the wire 37-year-old Rafael Warren. They claimed Warren had taken the wire to Bloomington Iron and Metal and sold the wire the morning of January 25th.
The Iron and Metal employee confirmed the scrap metal did have tags on it. Those tag numbers confirmed the scrap metal belonged to Lehigh Cement. Warren had left his trailer there that was used to transport the stolen copper wire. The wire had tags on it identifying that it was owned by Lehigh Cement.
Video surveillance at the job site confirmed that on January 24 at approximately 9:50 p.m. Warren and two other individuals are seen using a forklift to put the scrap copper on a trailer pulled by Warren’s gold GMC Yukon with unique rims. An employee at Lehigh reported Warren is one of the few employees who had the passcode to the secured gate.
Police then spoke to Warren who denied being at the worksite the night before and denied selling the wire. He refused to speak with the officer after those two comments.
The information was forwarded to the Lawrence County Prosecutor’s Office and a warrant was issued for Warren’s arrest.
