Yavapai County sheriff's deputies arrested two Prescott men Tuesday on several charges including burglary after someone spotted them in the yard of a Dewey business with cable cutters.
At 7 a.m., deputies responded to the report of a burglary in progress at MDI Rock in the 14000 block of Highway 169.
Employees arriving for work saw two men in the yard area with a large pair of cable cutters. When employees called out to them, both men ran through a wash and got into a white Chrysler Sebring convertible, said Dwight D'Evelyn, media and crime prevention coordinator for the sheriff's office.
As the men drove away, employees tried to block the vehicle from leaving, but couldn't, he said.
Deputies determined the suspects had cut copper cabling and wire and stacked it to load in their car, D'Evelyn said.
"Two spools of wire were stacked off to the side," he said. "This copper wiring is very valuable to recyclers. Thieves tend to gravitate toward businesses that have these types of items."
An employee followed the suspects north on Highway 69 where they drove erratically and allegedly forced a vehicle off the road, D'Evelyn said.
A deputy driving toward Prescott Valley from Prescott saw the convertible traveling on Highway 69 at Lee Boulevard, stopped it, and found two men inside who matched the employees' descriptions, D'Evelyn said.
Jesse Lamb, 33, and Joseph Wohl, 40, both of Prescott, told the deputy they were returning from a hike in Dewey and said someone had chased them off private property. Deputies searched the car and found wire cutters and jackets covered with dirt and debris.
Deputies arrested Lamb and Wohl on charges of burglary, possession of burglary tools, criminal damage, reckless endangerment and theft. While deputies were booking them into the county jail, they found Lamb had drugs concealed in a bag hidden in his underwear, D'Evelyn said. The bag contained six used hypodermic needles, a spoon with brown residue, Q-tip heads with brown residue and a straight-edge blade. A preliminary test of the residue indicated methamphetamine, he said.
Deputies also charged Lamb with possession of drug paraphernalia and promoting prison contraband.
