Henderson police arrest man in connection to a string of copper wire thefts

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - Henderson police arrested a man for a series of commercial copper wire thefts.

According to police, officers arrested Matthew Rexroad for allegedly stealing copper wire from a Henderson business. Police connected Rexroad to the crimes through multiple surveillance videos.

The manager of Progress Rail, a large refurbishing warehouse in Henderson, called police on April 20 to report a series of copper wire thefts. He showed detectives surveillance video showing two people cutting cables and taking them, then returning days later to do the same thing.

Police said there were hundreds of train friction motors and wheel assemblies outside of the business waiting to be refurbished.

The manager at Progress Rail said thieves have cost him nearly $800,000 during the month of January before targeting the warehouse again in April.

Progress Rail said thieves hit their business three times in January, stealing more than $122,000 worth of copper wire from train motors.

According to management, those units fixed cost is more than $660,000.

In addition to the cost of cables, the company said they suffered $786,000 in damages from the thefts.

Detectives connected Rexroad to others with criminal histories of copper wire thefts. One man is already in custody and has a record of scrapping more than five thousand pounds of copper.

Police said Rexroad could be linked to a bigger copper theft ring in the valley.

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