WTOL.com, Toledo's News Leader, News 11 | Police nab 2 accused of receiving stolen heating equipment

Police nab 2 accused of receiving stolen heating equipment

Reported by Lisa Rantala email

Posted by Kate Oatis email

TOLEDO (WTOL) - Toledo police say they arrested a couple with $50,000 worth of stolen heating equiptment and other goods Monday on Walbridge Ave.

They found 15 furnaces, heating coils and other goods in boxes. Officers are calling this a crime of opportunity.

Neighbors say they knew 30-year-old Roger Orange and 32-year-old Lisa Fry were up to no good when they emptied out their garage days ago.

"We thought something was going on over there because they would get up in the middle of the night and leave," one neighbor said. "They were unloading big screen TVs. Everybody was joking around that they had a big screen for every room in the house."

Police say they found 16 brand new furnaces, heating coils, window shutters and 15 commercial car vacuums or air pumps that you'd find at a local gas station.

"Their garage was pretty packed to the rafters with stolen property," said Lt. David Schmidt.

The heating equipment was taken from a construction site last weekend near South Detroit, where the contractor is building a number of new homes, police say.

"They'll sell (the equipment) to the friendly neighborhood slum lord to go in rental properties," Schmidt explained.

Police believe the vacuums would have been cut up and the stainless steel sold as scrap.

Even though the heists were big, they were still hard to detect.

"If these guys rolled up in a truck, they look like construction workers. It's on a construction site," Schmidt said.

Orange and Fry are facing two felony charges for receiving stolen property.

"They're the ones who had the stuff so they're going to have some explaining to do," Schmidt said.