Copper thief caught red-handed
By Elizabeth Billips Associate Editor

When the smoke cleared, Waynesboro police arrested a copper thief next to his smoldering evidence.

Last Wednesday, an officer patrolling West Sixth Street noticed a heavy cloud of black smoke behind the basketball courts.

He followed the smoke to Nesbitt Street where 43-year-old James Hicks, also known as "Three-Card Molly," was burning the insulation off a large heap of copper wiring.

Hicks insisted he found the rolls at an abandoned house on Cherry Street and had decided to sell them.

However, three rolls of wiring had been stolen from the Bell South building on Commerce Street just hours earlier.

Hicks was taken in for questioning and later charged with felony counts of theft by taking and theft by receiving stolen property and.

Investigator Claude Wade said Hicks is considered a suspect in other recent copper thefts, including one at Rowell Electric the same night as Bell South's. In that case, security footage shows a man loading up eight rolls of wire.

Since August, there have been at least four additional copper thefts in the city limits.