CLEARFIELD – A New Millport man accused of stealing copper wire valued at $40,000 pleaded guilty during sentencing court Monday.
Mason William Miles, 31, also pleaded guilty in another case to felony criminal trespass and in a third case to misdemeanor fleeing or attempting to elude police.
He was sentenced to serve six months to four years less two days in the county jail with three years concurrent probation by Judge Paul E. Cherry.
He must pay restitution of over $40,000.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, the theft occurred sometime between Jan. 10 and Jan. 12, 2023, at a Woodward Township business.
Miles removed two large spools of copper wire wrapped with black rubber insulation, which were sitting unsecured and unattended on two wooden pallets behind a white trailer/storage unit.
A detective from Penn State University Police contacted state police saying he was investigating two men he suspected in multiple thefts involving copper on construction sites on the university’s property. One of these suspects was Miles.
This detective served a search warrant on Miles and seized his cell phone. The phone reportedly had a photo of 100-foot diameter copper wire in the trunk of a white vehicle which was taken at Miles’ residence.
The phone also showed that Miles had searched recent news articles on the theft. In addition, there were text messages connecting him to other copper and catalytic converter thefts, police said.
The detective told police Miles confessed to his involvement in all the incidents that the officer was investigating and stated the copper was sold to a metal recycling center in Clearfield.
The criminal trespass case stems from an incident in July 2023 when Miles broke into a barn in Jordan Township and removed two buckets of fuel oil worth approximately $275.
Online court documents indicate Miles pleaded guilty in Centre County to misdemeanor conspiracy/theft for an incident on Dec. 25, 2022 for which he received one year probation; two counts of misdemeanor theft for his actions on Dec. 19, 2022 for which he was given two years probation and misdemeanor theft for another incident on Dec. 1, 2022 and was given two years probation.