The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

December 1, 2008

Rig stolen from Sharon found, minus scrap copper cargo

By Courtney Anderson

SHARON — A rig carrying copper stolen Nov. 23 from Sharon was found Nov. 26 in Erie County — minus the copper, which a trucking company spokesman said is worth more than $100,000.

Sharon police said the truck and flatbed trailer were recovered that morning in a hotel parking lot in McKean.

The truck had the keys in it and, besides a broken window and the missing metal, everything else was intact, police said.

The truck and trailer are owned by Butler Trucking Inc., Woodland, Pa. and a spokesman who declined to give his name Monday said he wasn’t surprised that only the rig was recovered.

“I doubted very much we would ever see the copper,” he said, noting that it is “as pure copper as you can buy.”

“The material itself is not something your typical mom-and-pop scrapyard would buy,” he said.

The Freightliner carrying 45,000 pounds of copper was being driven from Chicago to Connecticut by Peter J. Fuchs, 48, Shenango Township, police said.

Fuchs told police he parked the truck and trailer in a lot on the west side of the 100 block of South Dock Street at about 8:45 p.m. Nov. 21 and went back to check on it and start it because of the cold weather about 8:30 p.m. Nov. 22.

Fuchs said he left the truck running and when he went back to where it was parked at 3:10 p.m. Sunday the truck was gone, police said.

The trucking company spokesman said it is not standard procedure to leave a truck running overnight.

“When the driver told me that, I damn near fell out of my chair,” he said.

The spokesman said long-time idling is illegal in Pennsylvania now. Drivers are only allowed to run trucks for five minutes per hour after the temperature drops below 30 degrees, he said. The exception to that rule is that if it is very cold and a driver is spending the night in the truck, he said.

The trucks are very difficult to restart once it gets really cold, he said, but if they’re warmed up every hour they’ll start easily.

The spokesman also said that the truck was never to have been parked in Sharon. They are to be parked at company terminals if left overnight on a weekend, he said.

Fuchs is no longer working for the company, said the spokesman.

The spokesman said he was disappointed in the response of local police to date and that the shipping company who brokered the load, Trinity Transport Inc. of Seaford, Del., has notified the FBI’s special cargo theft division of the incident.

Butler Trucking is liable for that load, the spokesman said.

No one has been charged with the theft, police said.

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