3 Charged With Copper Wire Theft in North Dakota

Three people charged with stealing copper wire from a Bismarck, N.D., business may have been involved in similar thefts elsewhere in the state and in South Dakota and Iowa, authorities said.

Soran Kareen Kaka, 38 of West Fargo; Jerry Eugene Dean, 31, of Fargo; and Joel Lumbreras, 27, of Carrizo Spring, Texas, were charged Monday with felony burglary and felony theft of property for a break-in last week at RK Electric in Bismarck, the Bismarck Tribune reported.

According to an affidavit from Special Agent Casey Miller of the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, a BCI agent in Fargo was assigned to help Fargo police investigate other burglaries involving copper theft. The North Dakota burglaries were similar to each other and to some that occurred in South Dakota and Iowa.

While the affidavit indicates last week’s burglary in Bismarck might be connected to the others, none of the three suspects have been charged in any case other than the Bismarck break-in, the newspaper reported.

After someone stole copper wire from Bergstrom Electric in Fargo, police there identified a 1999 Chevrolet van as possibly involved in the theft. The police got a search warrant to attach a GPS tracking device to the van and eventually tracked it to the Bismarck business.

The three suspects were arrested driving back to Fargo, according to the affidavit.