PORTAGE —Two area men were arrested Wednesday after they tried to sell
as scrap metal tanks belonging to a Bowling Green business.
At 5:44 p.m. Wood County Sheriff’s deputies were called to E and M
Recycling on South Dixie Highway on an employee’s report that there were
two men trying to sell scrap metal that was possibly stolen.
The employee said that the men, Thomas Bergman, Custar, and Richard
Haas, Perrysburg, were trying to sell two tanks from RemTec, a business
in Bowling Green, where the E and M employee had formerly worked. The
steel tanks, weighing 100 pounds each, were ball-shaped and 2 feet in
diameter, and he said that RemTec was the only business in the area
dealing in that style of tank.
RemTec refurbishes and refills the tanks, which are government-owned,
for the Department of Defense, the man reported. The tanks are usually
used to contain halon or freon gas. Serial numbers on the tanks were
found to have been ground off.
RemTec was contacted and an employee said that neither subject worked
there and the no one should be in possession of the tanks. He also said
they deal with another business for their recycling. The tanks were
valued at $1,200 each.
Bergman and Haas claimed they found the tanks by a dumpster near an apartment complex on Ridge Street in
Bowling Green.
The suspects also has two “junk” refrigerators and other scrap items to
sell. Bergman said he had had the refrigerators in a storage unit. Those
items, the tanks, and the truck used to haul them were towed to the
sheriff’s office impound lot.
Bergman and Haas were arrested and taken to jail on a charge of
receiving stolen property. Further investigation is to be conducted by
the detective division.