Teens arrested in theft from business, school

Published 5:00 am Saturday, August 3, 2024

By Mark Shaffer
The Ironton Tribune

Three teens are under arrest after being charged with thefts from a lumber company and Ironton High School.
Around 10 p.m. on Tuesday, the Ironton Police Department responded to a burglary call at GTL Lumber on Adams Lane. The police called in the K9 unit from the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office to search the building.
Two suspects were located inside the lumber company and were detained.
Because GTL Lumber had recently been burglarized twice, IPD detectives were called to the scene and identified the suspects as Justin Bryant, 19, of 1405 S. Ninth St. and a 16-year-old male.
Officers then got a search warrant and searched their residence and recovered the stolen items from GTL Lumber, Ironton High School as well as items from a case that the sheriff’s office was investigating.
Ironton Police Detective Brian Pauley said a lot of stolen items were recovered from the house including $3,000 worth of tools from the first break in at GTL Lumber, a 20,000 BTU air conditioner from a second break-in at the lumber company, a six-foot tall beverage cooler, Prime energy drinks, a football helmet and a sledgehammer from Ironton High School along with several items from the sheriff’s office case.
Pauley said he doesn’t know if they were planning on selling the stolen items or not “because we recovered everything. The beverage cooler was actually in Bryant’s bedroom at his house. He had the Prime drinks in the cooler.”
He said while the police are always investigating break ins, most of the cases are things stolen out of cars.
“This is one of the bigger theft cases we’ve had here lately,” Pauley said. “There was thousands of dollars worth of tools and the air conditioner is probably around $700.”
Bryant, the 16-year-old male and a 15-year-old female from Charleston, West Virginia who was staying at the Ironton house were arrested at the residence and charged with breaking and entering and theft.
Further charges may be added after the cases go to the grand jury.
Bryant was taken to the Lawrence County Jail and the juveniles were taken to the Juvenile Detention Center. Bryant was arraigned on Thursday and released on a $7,500 bond.

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