(The following appeared on the Evening News and Tribune website on April 8, 2010.)
JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. — An off-duty police officer arrested two men for allegedly stealing railroad tracks and other metal items from CSX Corp., according to a Wednesday press release from the Jeffersonville Police Department.
Scott Schweitzer, 49, of Jeffersonville, and his nephew, Justin Hampton, 20, of Charlestown, were arrested Friday for theft after Martin saw the two men in a vehicle pulling a trailer with the railroad tracks loaded on them on Shungate Road, the release says.
At about 4:30 p.m. Friday, Officer Chris Martin was off-duty and driving on Utica-Sellersburg Road at Shungate Road in his marked police car. Martin was flagged down by a motorist reporting the two men were loading the tracks on the trailer, which was hitched to a pickup truck, the release says.
Martin located a green Dodge truck pulling the trailer loaded with the metal, and the truck pulled into the parking lot of a business “in a hurried manner” when Martin turned to follow the vehicle.
Martin talked to the driver, Schweitzer, and he admitted to taking the tracks and other metal items in the trailer, with the intention of selling them for scrap, the release says.
CSX officials were contacted and they confirmed the items were the property of the railroad company.
During the arrest, Schweitzer was found to have a probation warrant issued out of Floyd County, the release says.