A Lavonia couple is charged in the stealing of some copper wire from Leland Electric.

The arrests came late Wednesday night after a telephone tip led investigators to a home on Brookwood Drive in Lavonia, said Police Chief Bruce Carlisle.

“The investigators were able to follow up on these leads in an expeditious manner and find the wire that was taken from Leland Electric and put two people into custody,” Carlisle said.

Submitted photo

Submitted photo

Authorities arrested Andrew Kyle Taylor, 20, and Emily Rose Blakely, 19, both of Brookwood Drive, on Wednesday night.

Both are charged with burglary and tampering with evidence, and both remained in custody Thursday afternoon at the Franklin County Detention Center.

The back door of Leland Electric on East Main Street in Lavonia was kicked in sometime Monday night, and three large rolls of copper wire were removed from the business, officials said.

Authorities recovered some of the wire at the Brookwood Drive home, said Assistant Police Chief Matt London. The rest of it was found at another location. London said that when police questioned Taylor and Blakely on Wednesday, the pair had already sold some of the wire and were about to sell more.

“They had sold a quantity that they were able to strip the coating off of and sell,” London said. “We’re not sure exactly how much they were able to sell at this time.”

The suspects led investigators to another place where the rest of the wire was being hidden so it could be sold later, London said.

“After speaking with the suspects, we were led to another location off Pleasant Hill Drive, where we recovered more of the wire,” he said. “They had it (the wire) off the spool, and it was a jumbled up mess where they had stuffed it into plastic bags.”

Carlisle said copper thieves often attempt to sell to local scrap yards, but no scrap yard in Franklin or Stephens counties is knowingly involved in buying stolen goods.

“We have an excellent relationship with the local scrap metal yards, who are always good about alerting us if they get in anything that looks suspicious,” the chief said.

Carlisle said he doesn’t believe Taylor and Blakely are involved in a post office break-in or in other recent break-ins in Lavonia. More arrests are expected in the case of the Leland Electricbreak-in, Carlisle said.

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