Deputies: Second arrested for stealing $46,000 worth of heavy equipment | Crime

Lexington County Sheriff’s Department deputies on Wednesday, January 9 arrested a 48-year-old Gaston man on charges that the man on at least two separate occasions stole metal parts from heavy construction equipment as well as one radiator and one hydraulic cooler worth a total of about $46,000 from a warehouse on Gardners Terrace Road near West Columbia. Deputies previously arrested another 48-year-old Gaston man last month in connection with the thefts.

Lexington County Sheriff James R. Metts said deputies arrested Mark Quincy Stevens, 48, of 552 Woodtrail Drive, Gaston, on arrest warrants on two counts of third-degree burglary and two counts of an enhanced punishment for a third-or-subsequent offense involving a property crime. Stevens was being held on Thursday, January 10 at the Lexington County Detention Center on bail totaling $40,000.

Stevens and James Richard Padgett, whom deputies arrested last month, are accused of stealing metal parts worth about $40,000 from heavy construction equipment that was stored at the warehouse on Gardners Terrace Road sometime between December 17, 2012 and December 24, 2012, when the thefts were reported to the Sheriff’s Department, Metts said.

Stevens and Padgett removed electric motors, hydraulic pumps and other metal items from the heavy construction equipment and later sold the metal items for recycling at Mid-Carolina Recycling & Steel at 7425 Fairfield Road, Columbia.

Stevens and Padgett also are accused of stealing one radiator worth about $3,000 and one hydraulic cooler worth about $3,000 from the warehouse on Gardners Terrace Road sometime between December 25, 2012 and December 26, 2012, when the thefts were reported to the Sheriff’s Department, Metts said. Stevens and Padgett sold metal items constituting a total of 8,400 pounds at Mid-Carolina Recycling & Steel and received $2,300 as payment for the metal items that Stevens and Padgett sold for recycling.

Metts asked anyone with information concerning additional criminal activity involving Stevens or Padgett to contact the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department at (803) 785-8230 or CrimeStoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC. Citizens also can report information anonymously by accessing the Crime Tip link on the Sheriff’s Department web site (www.lexingtonsheriff.com).