GALLATIN CO., Ill.—Authorities in Gallatin County today are investigating the cutting and apparent attempted theft of irrigation copper wire from a location in the county yesterday.
Sheriff Shannon Bradley advised that a farmer who has property in the Saline Mines Road area outside of Shawneetown notified him last night that an alarm had gone off at the irrigation pivot on that line.
The farmer advised that his system has an alarm on it that sends a text to his cell phone if the system is tampered with at any point.
The farmer had apparently gone out to the location where the alarm originated, found a car, and notified authorities.
When authorities arrived, they found the vehicle, a black 1993 Chevy coupe. The car was unlocked, and inside the car was paperwork, one of the items bearing the name of an individual many in Gallatin County are familiar with, Jeremy Potts.
Bradley said that in the midst of all this, one Miranda Willis, who is Potts’ babymomma, showed up, and advised authorities that Potts was at their residence in Hardin County and had been there all night.
How she knew to show up is unclear at this point.
The vehicle was not Potts'; it came back to a Debbie Riggs, or Carrier Mills, who’s been notified of the impoundment of the vehicle. It is our understanding, however, that Riggs is Potts’ mother or stepmother.
Regular readers will recall that Potts was the key individual in the takedown of former Gallatin County sheriff Raymond Martin, this kicking off in 2009 and ending in a federal jury trial and life sentence in 2010.
This morning, the farmer called back, telling authorities that they’d “missed a bag”: midway between the vehicle and the pivot of the irrigation system that had sent up the alarm, were items consistent with copper theft from such a line, including a black bag with tools in it (such as bolt cutters, wire cutters and a little flashlight) and a green Army duffel bag that contained about 50 foot of cut copper wire.
Bradley opined that he didn’t understand why copper thieves would go for such a small haul as what can be found at irrigation lines, since even if they were to obtain hundreds and hundreds of feet of such a thing, it wouldn’t amount to but about $20 worth of copper once melted down, since the filaments are so small.
“They’d actually make more money picking up aluminum cans at the sides of the road,” Bradley said.
He advised that deputies scoured the area of the alleged theft last night and worked it again today, but found nothing else of use. The investigation is ongoing and Bradley couldn’t comment any further on it; so watch the site here for updates if we get them.