In the latest updates from the war on copper theft, four men were busted after swiping copper from a PG&E yard in San Rafael last Friday night. The four men, all of whom have very WASP-y names and are kind of getting up there in years, were busted after a PG&E employee at the yard spotted their suspicious van (of course it was a suspicious van) in a locked and fenced-off parking lot.
The suspects: Marshall Pease, 42; Brent Gibson, 34; Christopher Bates, 44; and Donald Furino, 52, were all charged with attempted grand theft, possession of stolen property, possession of burglary tools and conspiracy, the Marin Independent-Journal reports. Adding to the depressing blue collar-ness of the crime, the driver of the van immediately pulled over when a responding San Rafael PD officer began to chase the fleeing vehicle. The arrests were made around a 8:30 p.m. on December 23rd. Late-night heists, it seems, are a bit much for these gentlemen.
After the arrest of 52-year-old BART copper thief Dennis McGuire earlier this month, if we had to create a profile of your typical copper thief at this point, we'd say it is a middle-aged white dude with access to an Ace Hardware store.
Previously: Accused BART Copper Thief Busted
All Copper Theft Coverage on SFist
[MarinIJ]