Woman arrested for stealing, selling metal pump parts

MOSES LAKE — Deputies with the Grant County Sheriff’s Office arrested a Moses Lake woman on Tuesday accused of stealing metal from an irrigation equipment retailer and selling it for scrap to a local metal dealer, according to a GCSO statement.

According to the statement, 38-year-old Magaly Diaz Luna was arrested after staff at Moses Lake Iron & Metal became suspicious of the brass pump impellers Luna was trying to sell them. Staff had recently been informed by Irrigators Inc. that pump impellers had been stolen from their Moses Lake property, the statement said, after Irrigators Inc. staff found a hole in their fence and several impellers missing from a pallet.

Diaz had reportedly sold brass impellers to Moses Lake Iron & Metal six different times since mid-March, the statement said, and was paid the scrap rate of roughly $1,900. According to the GCSO statement, employees with Irrigators Inc. were able to identify the impellers as belonging to the company.

Employees of Moses Lake Iron & Metal delayed Diaz while sheriff’s deputies were called, the report said, and she was arrested for possession of stolen property and trafficking in stolen property. Diaz was lodged in the Grant County Jail, according to the statement.

The GCSO credits local scrap metal dealers for taking care when evaluating scrap metal for purchase as well as keeping in contact with local businesses that retail metal parts and equipment when metal is stolen.

While both businesses are within the Moses Lake city limits, the GCSO handled the call while covering for the Moses Lake Police Department during an annual staff meeting, the statement said.