TEMPLE, Texas (KXXV) — Temple Police needs your help identifying suspects and the vehicle allegedly used to steal 23K pounds of copper wire valued at around $300K.
Police said it happened around 2 a.m. Monday morning at a construction site on the 2300 block of Eberhardt Road involving three suspects.
"It's unique that the vehicle that was used was a Ford F450, gray in color dually, and the trailer is a triple axle trailer. Both of those are unique," Temple Police's Lt. Gary Smith, who's with the department's Criminal Investigation Division, said.
"Because you would need that type of heavy-duty trailer to accomplish a theft of this size," Division said.
It's a scheme police believe took around an hour to accomplish and was planned out.
Police said suspects loaded seven electrical wire spools and used equipment at the construction site to pull it off.
25News asked what we know about the suspects and if this could have been done by site employees.
LT. Smith responded, "The origins of the suspects are still under investigation at this time."
He added, "The construction site supervisors and company have been very cooperative and forthcoming with the investigation."
Workers at the construction site noticed the spools were gone and reported it to police. Investigators have leads in the case and are analyzing videos that can't be released yet.
LT. Smith said, "The vehicle being an F450 and the trailer itself being a triple axle pull behind trailer are very unique, and we ask for the public's help on trying to identify. If they see a vehicle or trailer matching that description, do not hesitate to get in touch with the Temple Police Department."
Anyone with information is urged to contact the Temple Police Department at 254-298-5500 or the Bell County Crime Stoppers at 254-526-8477, where callers can report anonymously. Tips can also be submitted anonymously by clicking here.
Anonymous tips can be submitted here.
