Mount Pleasant Man Accused Of Stealing Over $10,000 In Scrap Metal

MOUNT PLEASANT, WI — A Mount Pleasant man was charged with felony theft-moveable property on Tuesday after the Racine County Sheriff's Office said he took $10,000 worth of scrap metal from a business in Sturtevant in January.

If convicted, Evan M. Leimbach could face 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, Leimbach is accused of loading a min-van with scrap metal from a dumpster at Racine Metal Fabrication in the 1500 block of Grandview Avenue in Sturtevant.

Video surveillance showed the van reversing up to the dumpster area on Jan. 29 and people loading the van with scrap metal, the complaint said. Racine sheriff's deputies later found footprints, a work glove, broken branches and a cup of coffee around the dumpster.

The business told sheriff's deputies there had been multiple other nights where people stole scrap from their bin, the complaint said. The scrap metal taken on Jan. 29 was valued at over $10,000, according to the complaint.

Leimbach told officers he and another man would get scraps of metal off the road as he was trying to "make his way," the complaint said.

An investigator used a geolocation and geofence search of the area around Racine Metal Fabrication and found Leimbach's email and phone number were in the area around the time of the theft, although Leimbach denied being involved, according to the complaint.

An investigator also interviewed an inmate in Ozaukee County in May who told authorities he was with Leimbach at the time of the scrap theft in Sturtevant, the complaint said.

The inmate told the investigator that Leimbach and someone else took metal sheets and loaded them into the mini-van, but he didn't know where the material went afterward, the complaint said.