(The following appeared on the Reno Gazette-Journal website on August 25, 2010.)
RENO, Nevada — Two copper thieves will spend time in prison for stealing 750 pounds of copper wire meant for Union Pacific Railroad and Amtrak railroad tracks near Wendover.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office reported that Delbert Wayne Penny, 34, of Ogden, Utah, and Edward Val Stearns, 53, of Lake Point, Utah, were sentenced Monday by U.S. District Court Judge Robert C. Jones in Reno federal court. Penny got 30 months in prison with two years of supervised release and Sterns got 16 months in prison with three years of supervised release.
Sherri Christene Andrews, 33, of Evanston, Wyo., was sentenced in July to four years of probation in the same case.
All three were ordered to pay $48,095 in restitution to Union Pacific. All pleaded guilty to damaging and impairing a railroad signal system.
The thefts happened July 22, 2008, when all three drove to an area near Wendover, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Andrews acted as a look out while Penny and Stearns cut down 750 pounds of copper wire from telephone poles running along the railroad tracks. As they finished, a Union Pacific line crew spotted them and shined a light on them. They fled and were pursued by the line crew. A West Wendover Police Department office stopped the truck on Interstate 80.
The Elko County Sheriff’s Office got a search warrant and recovered the wire, walkie talkies, wire-cutting pliers and a pole tree trimmer with an extender.
The theft disabled the railroad detection system for problems for a 40-mile section of track.