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Officer Scott Habermann was on patrol before dawn this morning when he spotted two white vans in the parking lot of 59 N. Fifth Street, next to the demolition site, Chief Robert Kugler said. The rear doors of both were open, he said.
Seeing the four men, Habermann radioed for backup.
Officer David DeGennaro arrived soon after.
The group admitted they didn’t have permission to take the scrap, which they’d been loading into the vans “with the intent of redeeming it for cash at a local yard,” the chief said.
Police took photographs of the metal and then had the men return it to the yard, he added.
All four were then arrested on charges of theft and criminal trespass and released on summonses to appear in Municipal Court Feb. 20.
Kugler identified them as Kelvin Plasencia-Ortega, 26, of Weeks Avenue, and Pablo Diaz, 54, Dario Ruben Diaz, 40, and Felix A. Perez-Nunez, 22, all of the same Wytha Place apartment.
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