Police Task Force Charges 8 in Copper Thefts

Authorities filed a  litany charges on Tuesday against eight suspects in connection with copper thefts from several PECO substations in November and December.

The eight were each charged with with several counts of burglary, criminal trespass, theft by unlawful taking, criminal use of a communication facility, risking a catastrophe, criminal mischief, possessing an instrument of crime, recklessly endangering another.

A list of the suspects:

• William Earl Bruck Jr., 23, Grapevine Road, Bristol Township
• Christopher Weldon, 20, Rose Avenue, Bristol Township
• Taylor Homan, 21, Rose Avenue, Bristol Township
• David Hoffner III, 25, Young Birch Road, Bristol Township
• Michael Gerretz, 23. Yellowwood Drive, Bristol Township
• Jason Pallis, 29, Young Birch Road, Bristol Township
• Jamie Lynn Brown, 30, Grady Drive, Falls Township
• Brent Leone, 25, Albert’s Way, Middletown Township

All except Bruck were released on $500,000 unsecured bail after being arraigned before District Justice Robert Wagner Tuesday, court records show. Bruck has been in county jail on $400,000 bail since a mid-December, according to the county.

Numerous PECO properties in the Levittown area had copper grounding wire, which authorities say is worth about $3 a pound,  stolen over the past several months.

The grounding wire is used to protect workers and the power grid by acting as a safe pathway for excess electricity to harmlessly enter the Earth. Copper is used due its conductivity. Local authorities have previously said theft of the grounding wire can cause risk of death or serious injury to PECO employees.

In affidavit’s filed against the suspects on Tuesday, police called the copper theft ring “loosely” affiliated and said the group would set up the dangerous activities during phone conversations.

The suspects would use bolt cutters to breaking through the fence the surrounds the PECO substations, according to court records. Inside, they would pulls the wire from the ground and cut it loose, police said.

Many times, a driver would drop off the thieves, leave the vicinity, and pick them up so they could make their getaway, police said. A phone call, according to authorities, would indicate when the ring members needed the getaway driver.

In nearly all the incidents, the damage to the facility was greater than the cost of the stolen copper. All together, police said, close to $200,000 was caused.

The grounding wire, which is painted purple by PECO for identification purposes, was taken a single scrap yard in Philadelphia, court records said. The scrapping facility did not request the origins of metal or require the suspects to show identification, police said.

Investigators allege that Bruck had prior experience with stealing copper and “taught several other [suspects] on what he believed to be the safe way to steal the grounds,” court documents said.

The PECO facilities that the ring violated were spread across Bensalem, Bristol, Bristol Township, Falls, Langhorne, Middletown and Newtown Township, police said.

Both Brown and Pallis were arrested in February and charged with stealing copper from a PECO substation on Oxford Valley Road in Middletown. According to a criminal complaint, the duo used bolt cutters to punch a hole in the substation’s fence before costing the utility $7,000 in damages and missing metal.

Gerretz was arrested in November after him and another man were spotted stealing copper from the PECO facility on Mill Creek Road in Bristol Township. The 23-year-old was arrested and, at the time, his was able to get away.

In December, a police helicopter from Philadelphia was used by the task force early in the morning to search the neighborhoods surrounding the Mill Creek Road facility after an incident.

Officers from Bensalem, Bristol, Falls, Middletown and Newtown townships worked with county officials to form a task force to investigate the rash of thefts.

During the height of the thefts, patrol units in Bristol Township were instructed to perform increased checks at all PECO facilities in the township, officials said at the time.

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