Two Tons of Copper Stolen from Constellium
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - West Virginia State Police are warning manufacturers to review security procedures after two men posing as contractors drove out of a plant with two tons of stolen copper.
Trooper C.A. May says workers at the Constellium Rolled Products Plant in Ravenswood didn't suspect the men were thieves. They even loaded the scrap copper onto the men's pickup truck.
May tells the Charleston Daily Mail that Constellium sells scrap copper known as copper chops regularly. One of the men told the security guard at the gate that he was supposed to pick up an order. He used a fake license and identification to obtain a pass into the plant.
According to Sgt. J.P. Murphy of the Ripley barracks, The suspects were two Hispanic males, one of them six feet tall and heavy set, the other shorter in stature and skinny. They were driving a white, Ford F-350 crew cab truck, with a long bed on it, and it was trimmed with tan color trim.
"I tend to believe they had been on the property before, because they knew where to go and how the plant operated," Sgt. Murphy said. "They could have been (employed there). We haven't been able to identify them, so I can't say for sure."
A Constellium spokeswoman declined to comment on the theft.
The theft occurred last Friday. No arrests have been made.
State Police say that, if you have any information on these thefts, you can contact the Ripley post at 304-372-7850, or the Jackson County 9-1-1 center.
