Three women and a man were charged this week with stealing scrap metal from several properties in the southern part of Venango County last year.
Franklin state police said in a criminal complaint that last June 20, an off duty state trooper was driving in his personal vehicle along Hovis Road in Clinton Township when he saw a silver colored pickup truck parked along Porter Road near its intersection with Hovis Road and a blue pickup truck backed into the woods on the east side of Porter Road.
The off duty trooper observed Keith Allen, 36, of Hadley, helping two women, later identified as Paige Westervelt, 21, of Oil City, and Cheyenne Redmond, 21, of Harrisville, load scrap metal from the wooded area and he saw Michele Stella, 39, of Harrisville, with them, the complaint said.
The trooper turned his vehicle around to confront the four and saw the two vehicles being driven away on Porter Road before turning on to McKinley Road, so he followed them, the complaint said.
Allen swerved the silver truck he was driving and pulled it across the entire roadway, then he got out of the vehicle and walked toward the trooper’s vehicle and threatened the trooper, the complaint said.
The trooper got out of his vehicle and identified himself as a state trooper, then Stella got out of the vehicle and yelled at Allen before both of them recognized the trooper, got into their vehicle and fled, according to the complaint.
Later in the day, when the trooper was working his scheduled shift, he and another state trooper went to the camper on Clintonville Road in Irwin Township where they knew Allen and Stella were living, the complaint said.
The troopers then arrested Allen and Stella for theft, according to the complaint.
The troopers found out the blue truck was registered to Westervelt, and they were unable to find Westervelt and Redmond that day, according to the complaint.
The next day, a man told Franklin state police he had witnessed a theft of scrap metal on his neighbor’s leased property near Dog Hollow Road, the complaint said. The man also said he had heard about vehicles on another property near Hovis Lane several weeks before with sucker rods in the back, according to the complaint.
The description of the people the man saw and the two vehicles matched the description of the vehicles the off duty trooper had seen, the complaint notes.
Police spoke with the three property owners and each one said they had several hundred dollars of scrap metal stolen from their properties, the complaint said.
Westervelt and Redmond are both facing three felony counts of theft of secondary metal, and Allen and Stella were charged with misdemeanor counts of theft of secondary metal and resisting arrest.
Preliminary hearings for all four individuals are scheduled April 5 in Venango County Central Court.
