3 Charged With Copper Theft from Waukesha Store

Three Palmyra residents are facing charges after they got stealing thousands of dollars worth of copper wire from various area stores in order to fuel their drug habits, according to a criminal complaint filed in .

Tyler H. Burner, 25, Andrew J. Davis, 23, and Ambre P. Kovacs, 24, were charged in Waukesha County Circuit Court on Friday with one count of felony retail theft. If convicted, they could each face up to 3 ½ years in prison and $10,000 in fines.

According to the criminal complaint:

On Sept. 8, a security guard at Menards, 2315 Bluemound Road, Waukesha, spotted a man walking towards the front door of the store with $1,000 in copper wire but was stopped and detained.

Three weeks later, the security officer contacted police after he discovered three other people had taken $3,569 in copper wire from the store while he had detained the other man who was going out the front door. The security officer said a similar theft had also recently taken place at a Menards in Franklin.

After Waukesha officers contacted Franklin police they discovered Kovacs, Davis and Burner had been involved in both thefts.

Investigators discovered Davis was already being held in Waukesha County Jail on other charges and he then admitted to the thefts, saying they stole copper wire from various stores in the area by working in teams to distract employees and scout the best ways to leave the stores with stolen merchandise.

He said the teams would then split the money evenly and spend it on heroin.

They will make their initial appearance in court Dec. 21.