Copper wire theft suspects caught by farmers

GRANT COUNTY — Deputies for the Grant County Sheriff's Office on Sunday caught two Yakima area residents allegedly stealing copper wiring from a farm a few miles south of George.

Jason Daniel Davis, 33, of Selah, and Suzette Kay Brown, 39, of Union Gap, were booked into Grant County Jail for first-degree possession of stolen property, first-degree theft and making or possessing burglary tools. Brown was also arrested on a Yakima County warrant for failure to appear on a previous charge of obstructing a law enforcement officer.

Shortly after 7 a.m. on Sunday, farm-worker James E. Prchal spotted a suspicious pickup truck traveling a farm road used primarily by property owners and employees.

Prchal told the investigating deputies later that wire theft had been a problem in the area, so they were regularly checking the area for suspicious activity.

After seeing the unknown vehicle, Prchal attempted to make contact with the occupants, but they sped away.

Believing the subjects had taken wire, Prchal pursued the pickup truck for about two miles.

The property owner, Gerald "Spud" Brown, joined in the pursuit, drove in front of the fleeing vehicle and forced the driver to make a hard turn and stop. Prchal then called 911.

"They were refusing to stop," Chief Deputy John Turley said. "The only time they stopped was when the farmer pretty much cut them off at the pass and they had to either dodge him or hit him.

"Spud Brown and his hired man James Prchal corralled them until deputies got there," Turley said.

Brown told deputies who arrived at the scene that he could see wire taken from his farm in the bed of the alleged perpetrator's pickup truck.

According to the arresting officer's report, a search of Davis' vehicle yielded binoculars, a laptop computer, wire testing gages, insulated sheers and pliers. A map book was also found with notations written in Kittitas and Grant County.

"They had maps of places that they had been told to go or had gone to rip off (wire)," Turley said. "For being thieves they're very intelligent, they were making sure they weren't backtracking into places where they had already been stealing wire."

About $3000 in wire was in the back of Davis' pickup truck, along with a number of tools apparently used to take wire, the officer's report stated.

Turley said the two suspects confessed to taking the wire.

On Monday, the Grant County Prosecutor's Office charged Davis and Brown with first-degree theft and first-degree possession of stolen property.