Two men have been charged with grand theft after claiming they thought the thousands of dollars worth of metal they stole and sold was free for the taking.
The suspects, Thomas Richard Shearon, 37, and Kelly Francis Scott, 34, are both charged with felony theft. Shearon was bound to the grand jury Tuesday, while Scott awaits his day in court.
Their charges come after sheriff’s investigators focused on them as suspects in the disappearance of numerous steels pipes from outside TMF on Old Rock Island Road. During his pipe probe, sheriff’s investigator Kelly Carter said he checked around and discovered Shearon had driven Scott’s vehicle to American Iron and Metal in Manchester and sold steel pipe. When questioned, Scott reportedly claimed he did not know he was stealing.
“He stated someone had told him the steel pipe was being given away to anyone who wanted to pick it up and that he and a friend went to a location off Highway 288 on several occasions,” Carter recalled of his conversation with Scott, noting the men would get the metal late at night, usually around midnight.
Carter learned the men had taken pipe on numerous occasions and sold it to scrap metal places in Coffee County. At present, about $5,800 worth of pipe is missing from TMF, making the theft charge a felony.