CLEVELAND — Two Cleveland Public Power employees are accused of stealing supplies from the company then selling them to a scrapyard.
Workers at A&B Metal Recycling say the man and woman came in three times and sold a couple hundred pounds of copper clamps and copper and aluminum wire. Workers noticed identifying markings on the metal and called police. Those markings were traced back to CPP.
An employee of the metal recycler said the transactions were captured on surveillance cameras, and that the video was turned over to police.
In a police report obtained by 5 On Your Side Investigators, a detective accused the pair of stealing the metals and "a number of other items" from CPP going back to February, 2018. A city database shows that's a month after the utility hired the pair as student assistants making more than $24,000 a year.
Since the two 20 year olds haven't been charged, we're not releasing their names.
On Wednesday, A CPP spokesperson did not answer when the city-owned utility company learned of the allegations, how it responded, or what was being done to prevent similar things from happening again.
By phone one of the workers said he was still working for CPP Wednesday afternoon. The second suspect did not respond to a message.
Police haven't said how much the pair is accused of stealing. However, the police report says the case is being investigated as a felony theft in office.
The workers have been placed on unpaid leave, according to Cleveland city officials.
The city of Cleveland released the following statement:
City of Cleveland is aware of an investigation of two CPP employees. These employees have been placed on unpaid leave pending the adjudication of the case. As this is an active investigation, we will not comment further until the completion of the case.
