CENTER TWP — Three teenagers are accused of trying to steal scrap metal from a scrap yard on Jamisonville Road.

State police said they caught the suspects —Daniel J. Abbott, 18, and Brandon M. Wojno, 18, both of Clay Township, and a 17-year-old Butler area boy — in the act May 11.

Police last week charged all three with misdemeanor counts of attempted theft and receiving stolen property.

Preliminary hearings for Abbott and Wojno at the office of District Judge Lewis Stoughton in Chicora were not immediately set.

The boy, who police did not identify, will be prosecuted in juvenile court.

The alleged victim, Gerald Soose, in May reported that he had been plagued by a series of thefts at his scrap yard on Jamisonville Road, police said.

Soose showed troopers a pile of scrap that was amassed on the side of the woods not far from his property. Police also noticed a makeshift all-terrain vehicle trail leading into the woods near the scrap pile.

While speaking to Soose, police heard the sound of ATVs in the distance, according to court documents. It sounded like the vehicles were headed in the direction of Soose’s scrap yard.

Police eventually could see that one of the ATVs was hauling a dump trailer.

Troopers waited and heard the suspects “discussing who they were going to send up to the scrap yard to check if anyone was there,” a police affidavit said.

Police nabbed Wojno. The others got away on their vehicles but were later caught.