Three arrested for stealing copper from empty houses

Unoccupied houses made tempting targets for a trio accused Thursday of stealing copper and burning unoccupied properties in Montgomery and Delaware Counties last year.

The two men and one woman used real estate websites to find properties in foreclosure or on the market and unoccupied, and strip them of copper, according to a statement by the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.

At several of the properties, the three placed cardboard on a stove and lit it with a burner, starting fires, authorities allege. They are accused of striking in Abington, East Norriton, Limerick and Pottstown in Montgomery County and Swarthmore, Havertown, and Aston in Delaware County in incidents from February to March 2014.

They caused an estimated $750,000 in damage, said Kevin Steele, first assistant district attorney in Montgomery County. Fire damage varied by property, but a Pottstown home burned down, he said.

"These were dangerous crimes these folks were involved with," Steele said.

Kevin Colosimo, 36, of Douglassville, Pa.; Ryan Nelson, 22, of Aldan; and Megan Gawel, 20, of Newark, Del., were charged Thursday with criminal conspiracy, burglary, arson, theft, and related charges in connection with burglaries at 10 properties, according to the district attorney's statement. Each were held Thursday on $1 million bail.

The defendants gained law enforcement's attention after Nelson and Gawel were arrested last year. Detectives discovered the three left digital footprints tying them to the burglaries. Cellphone and computer forensics discovered searches for the burglarized properties online, text messages about the properties and GPS searches for the properties' addresses.

Detectives also tied the defendants to the burglaries with data from cellphone towers that placed the defendants near the crime scenes at key times, authorities said.

"The defendants were using the technology they had access to," Steele said. "However, we also used a lot of that technology to piece together the case that led to their arrests."

They left behind old-fashioned evidence, too, authorities said: addresses of burglarized homes on handwritten notes.

Stolen scrap metal is hard to trace and brings cash from unscrupulous scrap yards. In January, Montgomery County arrested two brothers who stole 1,000 metal storm grates, earning $9,000.

Stolen copper can bring up to $2.20 a pound, said Mike Whalen, owner of Sullivan Scrap Metal in Hatboro.

Scrap dealers must keep records of sales and sellers since the Scrap Material Theft Prevention Act was signed in June, but spotting stolen metal is almost impossible.

"If I gave you a piece of copper, there's no way you could tell or I could tell whether it was stolen," Whalen said.