Man caught stealing scrap metal from I-75 construction zone

FRANKLIN TWP. — A Kentucky man will be arraigned in Franklin Municipal Court at noon Friday for allegedly stealing scrapped steel from the construction zone on Interstate 75, north of the Ohio 73 interchange.

Thomas J. Pennington, 34, Waco, Ky., has been charged with two counts of criminal trespass and theft, all first-degree misdemeanors. He is being held in the Warren County Jail under a $11,000 bond.

According to the Ohio Highway Patrol’s Lebanon post, troopers were called at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 9 to investigate two suspicious men wearing fluorescent traffic vests and loading scrap metal into a pickup truck in the I-75 construction zone near milepost 39.

As troopers arrived, one of the men fled from the scene, but Pennington was apprehended. A white 1997 Chevrolet pickup truck that was registered to Pennington was found with several hundred pounds of scrap metal in the bed of the truck, along with several metal-cutting tools and receipts from various scrap yards.

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