Not his to sell...

On Friday April 27, Greenville Police Officer J.L. Peterson was called to the report of a stolen truck from 1311 West 14th Avenue.  The owner was reporting that his red 1977 Ford Pick-up was stolen from a fenced in area. 

Officer Peterson took the necessary information from the owner and completed his report.  The owner told Officer Peterson that he had already been looking at area salvage yards to see if somebody had taken the truck there.

A few hours after the report, the owner called the police again to say he found his truck at Empire Salvage Yard, on NC Hwy 903, a few miles north of Greenville.

Apparently, whoever stole the truck took it to the Empire Salvage Yard to sell as scrap metal.  The owner found the truck before it could be crushed, but many parts of the truck had already been removed, namely the radiator, battery, and some tire rims.

Police and Sheriff's deputies identified the man who sold the truck to Empire Salvage. His name is Michael Donnell Williams of Fountan, NC.  Officer Peterson later obtained  arrest warrants against Michael Williams for Auto Larceny, Felony Larceny, and Obtaining Property by False Pretense.

Stealing cars and trucks and selling them for scrap metal is a big business nationwide.  It has become such a big problem that recently new laws were enacted that require salvage yards to obtain positive identification as well as a fingerprint of the person who is selling the vehicle for scrap.

Fortunately in this case, the truck had not been crushed.  Greenville Police Officers have seen incidents in the past where stolen cars and trucks had already been completely demolished and crushed before they were identified as stolen.

Besides cars,  stolen car parts being sold for scrap is also a nationwide problem.  Catalytic Converters are stolen from cars and trucks and sold quite often.  Copper theft is also a multi-million dollar industry.  New laws enacted in the past few years require positive identification for all people who sell copper as scrap, but much of the copper is melted and sold far away from where it is actually stolen.

As for Michael Williams and the stolen '77 Ford Pick-up truck,  He got paid $739 by the scrap yard, and will be arrested soon.  Employees of the scrap yard told police that Williams had already been there just a few days earlier and sold them a 1967 Chevrolet. . . .Now we have to wonder if that car was ever his to sell in the first place.