San Angelo Man Accused of Stealing 5,000 Pounds of Copper Tubing

SAN ANGELO, TX — A San Angelo man was indicted for stealing over 5,000 pounds of copper wire.

Ronnie Molina, 55, of San Angelo, has been indicted by a Tom Green County grand jury for Theft of Materials after allegedly stealing $16,000 worth of copper from Darnell Construction.

According to court documents, on February 9, 2023, at around midnight, San Angelo Police were dispatched to the 4700 block of S. Chadbourne St. regarding a burglary alarm that was blaring. The officer noted that several buildings and multiple doors on the property had signs of forced entry, but no suspects were found at the time.

The owner was unsure of what had been stolen due to the size of the property and the number of items of construction equipment and materials. Law enforcement gave the owner a property a "continuation sheet" and then instructed him to complete the form when he had an accurate account of what was missing.

A few days later, an employee had returned the form to the investigator who saw that several items of construction equipment, including about 1,600 feet of one-inch copper tubing and a trailer, were listed as stolen. Once it was learned that copper tubing had been taken, several recycling centers in San Angelo were contacted. These sites were also informed to be on the lookout for copper as this material is not something normally seen as scrap. This amount of copper had an estimated value of $16,000.

On February 10, Darnell Construction was contacted by a representative at Acme Iron who told Darnell it had a large amount of brand-new copper brought and sold by the defendant, identified as Molina. Acme Iron said something to the effect of, “I think I have your copper” to the owner of Darnell Construction. The owner went to Acme and positively identified the material as the amount, size, and style that was stolen from him.

Acme Iron provided a printout of the transaction which depicted Molina’s identifying information, still frames from surveillance cameras, and frames of Molina completing the transaction with the company. They gave Molina $2,255 for a gross weight of 5,080 pounds of new copper tubing.

Molina was arrested and booked into the Tom Green County Jail on June 2, 2023, for Theft of Materials. He is due in court on March 19, 2024, for an initial pretrial hearing.