Published: July 02, 2009 10:43 pm      

Police nab shingle thieves

Early morning burglary attempt at store foiled

Corsicana Police have arrested five men who were caught in the act of stealing truckloads of shingles from McKee Lumber early Thursday morning.

The five Dallas men, Jose Ibarra, Cesar Olmedo, Oswaldo Olmedo, Juan Alvarado and Christian Ochoa, were all arrested for theft over $1,500 and under $20,000, and engaging in organized criminal activity.

The arrests began at 3:15 a.m. Thursday when Corsicana Police Officer Seth Fuller pulled over a suspicious truck on the Roane Road at Interstate 45. The driver, a Hispanic male, jumped from the truck and fled on foot and was not captured. However, the truck was full of roofing shingles, believed stolen.

Shortly after that, a concerned citizen who was walking by called the police to say that there was something suspicious going on at McKee Lumber.

When that call came in, police were already checking on local lumber and hardware stores, said Det. Jason Grant with the Corsicana Police Department.

Officer Jessica Adams, along with other officers from the early morning shift, arrived to find five men loading by hand the bundles of shingles onto a truck. All were arrested.

Because there were more than three of them involved, they were also charged with organized crime, Grant explained.

Larry Morrison, owner of McKee Lumber, said he was grateful for the help which saved him about $7,000 in losses.

“We’re pretty excited about it,” Morrison said Thursday afternoon.

The theft of roofing shingles is a recent trend that’s been going on in a three-state area, Morrison said. He’s been receiving notices at his business about the thefts around Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.

“The lumbermen’s association has been faxing us notices, where it’s happening and what’s involved,” Morrison said. “But there’s not much you can do except lock your gates and hope for the best.”

In all, the thieves had loaded 343 bundles of shingles, according to Morrison.

“This became an item when roofing became so expensive,” Morrison said. “It’s almost tripled in price in the last six months.”

Morrison said that his hat is off to the local police officers, who may have broken a larger ring.

“It was good police work, and it saved me a bunch of money, and may have saved the lumber business a bunch of money,” he said.

One of the large moving vans used in the theft was stolen from Dallas, and the second is believed to have been stolen as well, Grant said.

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