A maintenance staff of William S. Reyes Elementary School in Chalan Kanoa did a bit of investigating about a break-in at the school, leading to the arrest of two male teenagers on Friday.
The suspects-Walter A. Florencio and Benito B. Lee, both 19 years old-were taken to Superior Court yesterday on charges of theft. Their bail was set at $500 cash and $4,500 unsecured bond each.
Preliminary hearing will be on Oct. 25 at 9am.
Police detective Alex T. Sakisat stated in his report that burglars broke into the WSR main office and maintenance storage room on Aug. 27, 2012, and stole two bush cutters and a large bundle of copper wires that the school uses on Family Fund night every February.
The burglary was discovered when a maintenance personnel reported to work at 6:30am and discovered the storage door was open.
Because copper wires were stolen, a maintenance staff drove to a nearby Triple Star Recycling Center in As Perdido to investigate.
At Triple Star, the maintenance staff found on the floor a bundle of copper wires weighing 46 kilos. The maintenance staff called his colleague to come over to verify the wires. The second maintenance worker came and identified the four wrapped bundles of copper wires as WSR property.
Later, the recycling center's cashier gave police detective Catherine Pangelinan a copy of the receipt dated Aug. 25, 2012, that was issued to two individuals who sold the copper wires.
The receipt indicated that 46 kilos of wire worth $49.50 were sold to two individuals. Footage from a surveillance camera showed two individuals selling the bundles of copper wires.
Pangelinan identified the suspects as Florencio and Lee, who live in Chalan Kanoa near the former Bolis Store.
The detective also noticed on the video footage that the SUV used by the suspects has a white skeleton sticker design on the right bottom portion of the windshield.
Pangelinan drove to the residence of Florencio where she found a Hyundai Santa Fe with white skeleton sticker design on the windshield parked in the driveway.
Sakisat said that Florencio later admitted in an interview that he and his friend Lee sold the copper wires to the recycling center.
On the same day, Sakisat said, Lee also allegedly confessed that he and Florencio were the ones who stole and sold the copper wires.
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