WSP trooper's wife helps stop apparent metal theft

ROYAL CITY - Sheriff's deputies credit the wife a Washington State Patrol Trooper for reporting suspicious activity leading to the arrest of two alleged scrap metal thieves.

On Saturday evening, the woman saw people loading aluminum irrigation pipe into a pickup truck near County Road 10 Southeast and state Route 262 near Royal City. Believing they were stealing the metal for scrap, the woman called her husband, who was on duty nearby.

The trooper arrived a short time later and detained Rosanne Martinez and Damian Salmeron Arellano, both 44, of Royal City. The trooper then helped a Grant County Sheriff's deputy arrest the two, Martinez for third degree theft, third degree malicious mischief and possession of 0.6 grams of methamphetamine, and Salmeron Arellano on suspicion of third degree theft, third degree malicious mischief and a U.S. Border Patrol hold for being an illegal alien.

Both are being held in the Grant County Jail.

Recovered were four sections of pipe belonging to Zirkle Fruit, whose manager said the suspects did not have permission to be on the property or to remove the pipe.