By Nathan Hardin
nhardin@salisburypost.com
Three people were arrested on Friday after a Poole Road man followed scrap metal thieves from his home to an East Spencer scrap yard.
The Rowan County Sheriff’s Office reported that Maurice Corey Gallon, 800 Park Ave.; Molly Molina, 114 Reamer Circle; and Michael Griffin, 1001 Bringle Ferry Road, were charged with multiple felonies related to scrap metal incidents.
The report said Dan Black, owner of Tamarac Marina, spotted a burgundy van at a neighbor’s house at 2 p.m. on Nov. 18.
Black told authorities the van looked suspicious because it had a “large truck front-end strapped to the roof,” the report said, and also looked like it had other vehicle parts inside.
Black contacted his neighbor, David Land, who followed the van to Holmes Metal and Iron, 629 N. Long St., East Spencer, the report said.
Rowan deputies, East Spencer Police, Land and the three accused thieves met at the scrap yard where the thieves were arrested after attempting to sell the parts.
After taking the three into custody, deputies said, one of the suspects confessed to investigators that one day earlier, on Nov. 17, the three had taken the van to a house near Ryan Court apartments and had stolen a water heater.
After that, the report said, they then went to a home near Faith Road and stole a wheelchair, jumper cables and aluminum scrap from the home’s carport.
The next day, on Nov. 18, one suspect was contacted again by the other two suspects and went back to the home near Faith Road to steal an additional wheelchair, water heater, carpenter tools, sewing machine and copper wire, according to the report.
After taking those, the suspect said, they went to Land’s property on Poole Road and took car parts from what they said appeared to be a warehouse.
Gallon, 19, Molina, 21, and Griffin, 22, were charged with four counts of felony obtaining property by false pretense and one count of misdemeanor larceny.
They were each given an $11,000 bond.