“In May, we began investigating a case of nearly $150,000 worth of stolen batteries. The suspect was selling more than 10,000 pounds of locomotive batteries that appeared to be stolen from his employer. LeadsOnline showed the suspect had been selling the batteries over the past three years to recyclers across Alabama. Without this evidence, the suspect would have continued his activity and the business would still be losing money.”
Det. Justin Howard
Birmingham Police Department
Alabama
“With the assistance of LeadsOnline, I was able to locate and recover over 21 batteries that were stolen from a major utility company. This led to two felony charges for theft of copper/aluminum/bronze.”
Det. Alejandro Martinez
San Antonio Police Department
Texas
Missouri Police use electronic scrap metal database to solve battery thefts
“I was investigating several reports of batteries being stolen from vehicles in the Springfield, Missouri area. Upon obtaining a possible suspect name, I searched her name in LeadsOnline, and I was able to determine she had sold several batteries to a local “scrap yard” in the date range of the thefts of the batteries. I interviewed the suspect, and she confessed to stealing the batteries and selling them. The suspect also admitted her boyfriend was involved in stealing batteries and selling them. I searched his name in LeadsOnline and found he was selling several batteries as well. During the interview with him, he confessed to stealing batteries and selling them for cash to a scrap yard. Although I was unable to recover the stolen batteries, I was able to charge two suspects with Felony Stealing.”
Cpl. Jeremy Anderson
Springfield Police Department
Missouri
Police recover $28,000 in railroad equipment stolen from major railroad company
“I received a call from a local Railroad Police Agent after he received a tip that one of the employees was selling railroad property here in Fort Wayne. This employee, who is based in Pennsylvania, loaded his work truck up with A LOT of extra equipment prior to coming to Northern Indiana as part of a work crew. When it was all said and done, I was able to locate and recover nearly $28,000 in equipment — base radio’s, complete security camera systems, battery units for crossing signals….the list goes on and on. Needless to say, the railroad company was very happy to get their property and equipment back, and it was all done with ONE search in Leads.”
Det. Joseph Lyon
Fort Wayne Police Department
Indiana
“During the month of November, my area of the county was experiencing a large increase in metal theft. By dumb luck, we encountered the suspects selling some stolen batteries and metal to a local metal recycling center. While on the scene, we located a pawn slip for a saddle that had been reported stolen. I decided to check LeadsOnline to see if any other items had been sold, and found several other items that matched descriptions of items reported stolen but with no known suspects. With a little dumb luck and a lot of help from LeadsOnline, I closed four additional cases, and put two very dirty thieves in the Brunswick County Detention Center.”
Det. Ryan Newman
Brunswick County Sheriff’s Department
North Carolina
“As all of the Investigators know, Scrapyard Search is a very powerful and useful tool. This year I had a very interesting case where a subject was breaking into cell tower sites and then accessing the locked metal cabinets that contained the cell tower site battery back-ups. Each carrier has its own locked cabinet containing their own back-up batteries. This subject would access the cabinets and disconnect and take the batteries getting between 6-18 batteries at each site. (Battery 200 lbs. and $800.00 each) Also leaving the cell tower site with no back-up or 911, if power is lost. The subject would then go to an area scrapyard with the batteries, posing as a cell company employee, with forged paperwork and sell the batteries as scrap. This subject was entering cell sites in several states and taking and scrapping batteries. This subject did this in my jurisdiction several times and later exited the state. A month later, he re-entered the state and started scrapping the back-up batteries again and that’s when I caught him at a local scrapyard with stolen batteries and later he was charged with the thefts. This would not have been accomplished without the scrapyard search and these cell companies would still have their cell towers at risk. Thanks, LeadsOnline.”
Det. J. Desizlets
North Little Rock Police Department
Arkansas