Published: April 25, 2008 11:49 pm      

Get-away vehicle crashes; men arrested for theft

After a Madison County lumber yard refused to buy lumber that did not meet its criteria from two out-of-towners, the men allegedly took it upon themselves to take an $850 piece of equipment from the business on their way out.

Madison County Sheriff Nelson O’Donnell said employees of Northeast Timber on US 25 North in Madison County called him Wednesday to report a Huskavana chainsaw as stolen.

“They said these two guys had been out there and he gave a description of the pick-up trucks and said each had a load of white oak logs on a trailer,” O'Donnell said. “They refused to buy the logs because they were too small in diameter, so upon their leaving the log yard, they saw a Huskavana chainsaw valued at $850 that was sitting up next to the office building. So they swung around and got the truck between the view of the yard personnel and one of them picked up the chain saw and took it with them.”

O’Donnell said he made contact with Richmond Police and Kentucky State Police to give a description of the vehicles and asked for assistance in locating them.

“Richmond Police immediately contacted me back with a quick response, saying both vehicles were at the 89 (mile marker of Interstate 75) southbound and one of them had wrecked and run over an embankment,” O’Donnell said.

After arriving on scene, the chainsaw was found among some other property in the bed of one of the trucks. Some disrepair to the trucks and trailers may have caused the accident, O’Donnell said.

“He said that his trailer just got to fishtailing on the hill,” he said. “It was loaded pretty full and he probably was going too fast on those bad tires and it just got away from him and jackknifed. Fortunately no one was injured in it.”

The two men were identified as James Hamill, 24, of Paint Lick, and Jody Cooper, 21, of Crab Orchard. Each are charged with one count of theft by unlawful taking of property valued at more than $300. They were lodged in the Madison County Detention Center on $1,000 cash bonds.

Kelly Foreman can be reached at kforeman@richmondregister.com or 624-6694.