On Wednesday, detectives with the Agricultural Crimes Task-Force arrested Richardo Avila, 32, of Fresno.
He was booked into the Fresno County Jail on charges of embezzlement and receiving stolen property. Avila has since posted bond and bailed out of jail.
At 3:30 pm, detectives were conducting proactive enforcement at a recycling center in southeast Fresno. They notice Avila pushing a cart loaded with shiny, new commercial size copper wire. A detective asked Avila if he had permission to be in possession and sell the copper wire. Avila said he did and gave the detective a phone number to call his boss to verify his story. The detective called the number and discovered it did not belong to his boss. Once Avila was confronted with this false information he admitted to taking the wire from his job site without permission. The wire on the cart weighed 147 lbs. and was valued at $352.00.
Detectives obtained receipts from the recycling center showing Avila had made several transactions there from March 2014 to January 2015, which totaled $1,565.00. Avila admitted to having more large spools of copper wire at his house located on the 3700 block of E. Bellaire in Fresno. Detectives searched his backyard and found more than 500 lbs. of the precious metal. The wire has been returned to its owner, an electrical company in Bakersfield.
Avila is a licensed electrician who was working a job for his employer in Firebaugh. Scraps of copper wire discarded during construction are supposed to be placed into a pile for the company to haul off to a recycling center, but Avila was taking a portion of the scraps and cashing them in for himself.
It’s important to note that earlier this month the Agricultural Crimes Task-Force assigned two detectives to strictly focus on metal theft. They are Isaac Torres & Mike Wynn. This decision was made because agricultural theft and vandalism are such huge problems in our community. If you are aware of this criminal activity, you should report it to the Sheriff’s Office at (559) 600-3111 or Crime Stoppers at (559) 498-STOP (7867).
