BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

INEZ — Copper wire thieves continue to destroy infrastructure in Martin County, knocking out phone service for weeks or months at a time in some areas and costing AT&T thousands of dollars. But the Martin County Sheriff’s Office made gains in arresting three men for stealing copper phone wire from Blacklog, Coldwater and Tomahawk.

Chief Deputy Chris Kidd arrested Jeffrey Pinson, Ray D. Collins and Justin Mollette in connection with the thefts. Kidd says all three men had been implicated in the ongoing investigation, and witnesses provided enough evidence for him to obtain warrants for their arrests.

“These individuals need to understand that they’re taking critical infrastructure away from citizens of the county, who may need to call 911 or may need to call for help. And when they can’t do that, we’ve got a serious problem in our county,” said Kidd. “That’s why we’re working diligently and as hard as we can. We’re investigating them to the fullest lengths and they will be prosecuted as far as we can prosecute them.”

Once confronted with evidence, all three men admitted to cutting AT&T’s phone line and selling it to Mountain Metal in Prestonsburg, T&B in Allen and Howell’s Recycling in Inez.

“The scrapyards have been cooperative on all three of these individuals, sending me receipts for all the copper they’ve sold,” said Kidd.

The deputy obtained receipts from the three scrapyards totaling over $20,000.

“They’re making a lot of money doing this, mostly at Mountain Metal because, according to them, Mountain Metal and T&B pay a lot more,” said Kidd. “You can imagine that $20,000 for AT&T’s purposes is a lot higher because they have to rehang it and pay all their workers to do it.”

Pinson, 29, of Mac Pinson Drive, Inez, was arrested Thursday and charged with theft by unlawful taking over $1,000. 

Kidd found three burn piles of copper just past Pinson’s residence, which Pinson identified as the location where he processed the stolen wire, which he then sold to Mountain Metal. The deputy said an AT&T representative identified the remnants as wire belonging to AT&T.

“Mr. Pinson admitted that he and Ray Collins had stolen some phone wires belonging to AT&T on Coldwater Road,” said Kidd.

Kidd served his second warrant at 8 a.m. Friday on 66-year-old Collins, of Preece Road, Inez, charging him with theft by unlawful taking over $10,000.

“During my investigation, Mr. Collins was implicated several times via photographs, witness statements and receipts from the scrapyards,” said Kidd. “While serving the arrest warrant on Mr. Collins at a camper on Davis Branch, I saw in plain sight that he also had around 150 feet of phone wire that wasn’t processed at the time. When questioned about that, he advised that he got it somewhere close to Greasy. Mr. Collins did end up talking to me and giving me a video statement admitting to his part of what’s been going on in the copper thefts in Martin County.”

Mollette, 33, of Blacklog Road, Inez, was arrested at around 9 a.m. Monday and charged with theft by unlawful taking over $10,000.

“Mr. Mollette had been implicated several times in the investigation into copper thefts in Tomahawk and on Blacklog,” said Kidd. “He did contact me and advise me that he wanted to go ahead and turn himself in.”

The deputy picked Mollette up at his residence.

“Mr. Mollette and I discussed during his interview some of the areas in Martin County that have been affected, including Blacklog, around Tommy’s Auto Sales and around Giovanni’s there close to his residence – three incidents that he was directly involved in. Also, there were three incidents he was involved in on Tomahawk Road, the Tomahawk side of Milo and an area up in Trace Fork on Rockhouse.”

Kidd said it had been difficult to get the evidence needed to arrest the three until a “good citizen” came in one day and gave the sheriff’s office the information they needed.

According to Kidd, AT&T provided asset loss reports for three locations totaling over $15,200.

Kidd said the frequency of cable theft has increased in the county, and the evidence keeps building on additional individuals implicated from the start.

“The sheriff’s office will keep working the case,” stated Kidd. “Anybody and everybody involved in cutting copper in Martin County will be charged and prosecuted to the fullest extent.”

The arrests last week bring the total to 10 individuals arrested in connection to the copper theft investigation since the beginning of October.