4 face stealing charges after copper stolen from railroad property in Scott City

SCOTT CITY, Mo. (KBSI) – Four Scott City residents face felony stealing charges after copper was stolen from Union Pacific Railroad property in Scott City.

Randall J. Hanstein of Scott City faces two Class D felonies of stealing and damage to a critical infrastructure facility.

Tommy W. Kraft of Scott City faces Class D felony of stealing charge. His bond is set at $75,000 cash or surety.

Eric N. Glueck of Scott City faces a Class D felony of stealing charge. Bond is set at $40,000 cash or surety.

Ricky K. Hunter of Scott City faces two Class D felony charges of stealing and damage to critical infrastructure. Bond is set at $75,000 cash or surety.

According to detectives with the Scott City police department four individuals stole thousands of dollars in copper wire from the Union Pacific railroad area in Scott city now I’m told how they did it was through a path that runs directly behind the railroad.

Chief Chris Griggs with the Scott City police department gives details on the investigation.

“Our officers spent a lot of time conducting surveillance all hours of the night. So they put a lot of time and effort into that.” 

Detectives say they had a stake out for about four days and investigated as these individuals went onto the pacific railroad yard through a path alongside a field in the back of the railroad yard. The suspects would then locate large rolls of copper wire and roll it to the field to unravel.

Griggs says the copper inside the wire is worth a pretty penny.

“Normally they’ll take it to a recycling place and sale it. Thats kind of the path for that, that’s kind of what everybody does with it.” 

Griggs says they beleive the indivuals sold around thirteen thousand dollars worth of copper to area recycling centers. He says they are still investigating if this is a single incident or not.

“We believe that locally there may have been some more incident so they’re still working on that too.”

Griggs says he’s proud of how his department handled the investigation, 

“They put a plan in place and executed it. They did a really outstanding job not only for the community, but the railroad was quite pleased as well.” 

Anyone with any further information on the incident is encouraged to contact Scott City Police Department.