Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 3, 1995 TAG: 9508030064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER NOTE: Below
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A suspected interstate theft ring found its way to Franklin County and was promptly done in by a pair of bolt cutters.
Not your typical smoking gun, those bolt cutters.
But in this case, they were the link to a band suspected of having hit in several states, using rental trucks to heist equipment such as lawn tractors, said David Cundiff, the Franklin County investigator who headed a multistate probe of the theft ring.
Cundiff became involved with the case overnight June 25 when eight John Deere tractors - valued at close to $40,000 - were stolen from Anderson Tractor and Equipment on U.S. 220 near Rocky Mount.
When Franklin County investigators arrived, they found footprints, some Camel cigarettes, a homemade ramp made of salt-treated plywood - and the pair of Ace Hardware bolt cutters, according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Roanoke by an FBI agent.
An identification number on the bolt cutters allowed Franklin County investigators to trace them to a store in Lebanon, Ohio.
Cundiff and Deputies F.M. Jamison and S.W. Mills went to the store, where they discovered that only two pairs of the bolt cutters had been sold there in recent months.
A witness later identified one of the purchasers as Michael Clay Simpson, 25.
He and another man, Greg Cooper, were arrested several days later in Ohio and charged with conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen goods.
When the Franklin County investigators dug some more - with the help of the Lebanon Police Department - they found an abandoned U-Haul vehicle at the Big Bear Shopping Mall in Lebanon. In it, they found some Camel cigarettes and a piece of plywood that matched the wooden ramp found at Anderson Tractor and Equipment, according to the FBI affidavit.
They also found another key piece of evidence: a metal sticker with a stock number matching one of the tractors that had been stolen.
Two of the tractors since have been recovered. Several others were sold, the affidavit alleges.
The U-Haul was tracked to Roanoke, where it had been rented. An employee of U-Haul in Roanoke identified a photo of James Dean Simpson, who escaped from a Kentucky jail in March, as the man who had rented the vehicle, the affidavit said.
James Simpson is the brother of Michael Simpson.
James Simpson, 32, and Mary Louise Davis, 30, were arrested July 27 in Delaware on charges of conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen goods. Both remain in custody.
Michael Simpson and Greg Cooper, no age available, waived preliminary hearings Tuesday in federal court in Dayton, Ohio, and were released on bond, Cundiff said. They were scheduled to appear in federal court in Roanoke later this month.
Cundiff said sheriff's investigators considered filing charges in Franklin County but quickly realized two important reasons for moving the case to the federal level.
"They'll get more time if convicted," he said of the suspects. "And we needed some help. We can't afford to fly all our witnesses back and forth."
Sgt. Rick Bens of the Lebanon Police Department assisted Franklin County in the case.
"I told them I thought they should go play the lottery. Boy, did they ever have some luck," he said.
"We had the good Lord and some luck on our side," Cundiff said.
by CNB