UNDERCOVER PROBE BRINGS FIVE ARRESTS IN COPPER THEFTS.

Byline: Rick Coca

Staff Writer

An undercover investigation into copper thefts in the northeast San Fernando Valley has led to the arrest of five people, police said Thursday.

Guy McNally, 43, Omar Moreno, 36, and Ricky Walter, 45, are facing felony grand theft charges for allegedly stealing copper and other metal with an estimated value of between $200,000 and $1 million, said Debra Kane, a lead burglary detective with LAPD's Foothill Division.

Walter has been charged with one count, while the others are facing multiple counts, according to court documents.

Police believe the two other unidentified people arrested acted as fences for the three men, taking the stolen metal off their hands. Charges against them have yet to be determined, Kane said.

The men are accused in a series of thefts, including, in some instances, posing as construction workers while stealing copper and other metals from apartment buildings, golf courses, schools and construction sites, Kane said.

The ring is believed to be responsible for committing more than 100 thefts, Kane said.

"We had a big problem ... with people cutting off regulators from apartment buildings, cutting out sprinklers from golf courses," Kane said. "Everywhere there was copper."

Some of the thefts occurred in the dead of night with residents in apartment complexes waking up with no water after water regulators were removed, Kane said.

Some of the most brazen thefts occurred in the middle of the day, Kane said.

"What they did is they took a truck that looked like a construction company truck, put on construction hats, brought out yellow tape and would basically pretend they were construction workers," Kane said.

The three face a preliminary hearing on Jan. 10 at the San Fernando Superior Courthouse, said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Rafael Pineda, a computer programmer for Glendale Recycling Inc., said as the price for copper rises, so have visits from law enforcement officers looking to nab suspects dealing in copper theft. His company is always ready to comply, he said.

"We keep records of people," Pineda said. "When they ask, we have a copy in our system and we have the paper the customer signed. We have everything."

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