Kansas Suspects in Theft of Signal Wire Arrested HOLTON, KS -- A Shawnee County man was one of four people arrested Wednesday by law enforcement officers responding to a reported theft in progress of signal wire from a Union Pacific railroad crossing near Emmett. Jackson County Sheriff Charles Cornell said Vincent Angelo Vanderputten, 43, was booked into the Jackson County Jail in Holton Wednesday night in connection with felony theft and a misdemeanor charge of contributing to child misconduct. Cornell said Vanderputten was the only one of the four arrested Wednesday who was caught within the vicinity of the crime scene. He said responding officers located a suspect vehicle on the railroad right-of-way, and two white men abandoned the vehicle and ran into a cornfield. In addition to Jackson County deputies, law enforcement officers from the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office, Pottawatomi Tribal Police, Kansas Highway Patrol troopers, a K-9 unit and the railroad joined the response because several wire thefts had been reported in Jackson, Pottawatomie and Shawnee counties during the past month, Cornell said. He said the theft Wednesday entailed climbing power poles, cutting loose the wire and then rolling it up as it was collected on the ground along the tracks. He said the thieves had driven their vehicle onto the right-of-way and were collecting the wire when officers arrived. Cornell said $15,000 worth of wire was recovered Wednesday at the theft site and from two residences -- one in southwest Jackson County and one in northwest Shawnee County. Officers didn't drive their patrol cars onto the right-of-way Wednesday, Cornell said. But a passing train was moving slowly enough that at least one officer jumped aboard and watched for signs of movement in the corn as he rode through the crime scene. The search near Emmett lasted about two hours before the scene was secured as a crime scene. Cornell said heat was a factor in the decision to call off the chase. But later Wednesday, officers arrested Vincent John Shibler, 20, of Emmett, and two Shawnee County juveniles at a rural Shawnee County residence just south of the Jackson County line, the sheriff said. Shibler was booked into jail in connection with felony theft. Paperwork was being filed on the juveniles today, Cornell said. Cornell said a railroad spokesman said nearly $70,000 in copper wire had been taken in a three-county area over the past three weeks, and more charges may be filed against Vanderputten and Shibler after the investigation was completed. The $15,000 value estimated on the wire recovered Wednesday was a conservative estimate based on the price of copper being 0.76 cents a foot, Cornell said. - The Topeka Capital Journal
