Former T-Mobile Employee Held Over Copper Cable Thefts

Police in the city of Tampa, Florida have arrested a former T-Mobile USA employee on suspicion of stealing copper cables and reselling them as scrap metal. John Richard Lefan Jr., 41 faces a felony charge of grand theft.

He was employed by T-Mobile last September, after several years working or the police and was responsible for requisitioning supplies for the network operator's tower infrastructure. Over the following seven months he placed excessive orders for copper cable and sold the surplus to a Tampa recycling company.

According to the arrest report, T-Mobile held an internal investigation and he admitted to stealing nearly US$130,000 worth of copper cabling and selling it for US$43,000. He was fired by the company in March and turned himself into the local police last week.

He is currently being held in lieu of bail pending prosecution.

A Texas legislator made headlines last July for shooting a man allegedly stealing copper pipes from a new home the lawmaker was constructing. As the value of copper, aluminum and other scrap metals has risen in the past two years, so have complaints from businesses about criminals seeking to salvage the metal and earn some quick cash. More than half of the US states have considered legislation to combat the reselling of stolen metals, according to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, an industry trade group.

Posted to the site on 2nd August 2008