ALLEGHENY TWP — Equipped with trailers and wreckers, a 67-year-old man and his two sons are accused of stealing tons of scrap — mostly junked cars — from a farm in this northern Butler County township.

The accused thieves later allegedly sold the stolen scrap to a waste metal recycling facility for about $4,500, state police said.

Police this week charged Larry C. Cratty of Allegheny Township, and sons Kenneth D. Cratty, 47, and Travis C. Cratty, 35, both of Parker, with felony theft in the case.

The also are charged with conspiracy and trespass.

Investigators suspect the defendants swiped the scrap from Samuel Sheppeck's farm on McKees Road between March 21 and 28.

That week, Sheppeck of Butler did not stop at his farm, where he raises crops, because he was tending to the affairs of and funeral for his mother, who died March 21.

Sheppeck's 111-acre farm is especially familiar to Larry Cratty, who lives next to it. He also hunted on that property and at times helped tend to it when it recently belonged to his late aunt, Aline Cratty.

The farm, upon Aline Cratty's death in 2006, was inherited by her son, Stacey Cratty of Warren County. Last year, he sold the property to Sheppeck.

The sale, according to court records, apparently did not sit well with Larry Cratty, who in April 2009 filed but later dropped a lawsuit seeking to block the transaction in hopes of keeping the property in the family.

Sheppeck said he was aware of the bad feelings the sale caused and wrote a letter informing Cratty he was welcome to any scrap on the property.

"I gave him the chance to take it out," Sheppeck told the Butler Eagle, noting the property he bought was littered with junk cars, worn-out appliances and other large clutter.

But Cratty never took the new owner up on the offer to come and get any junk that Sheppeck planned to gather up and take away, police said.

Stacey Cratty earlier had made Larry Cratty a similar offer, before the sale to Sheppeck was finalized, court records showed.

Sheppeck, meanwhile, after not hearing from Larry Cratty, began cleaning up the property

He collected together 13 junk cars and vehicles as well as other waste items like old refrigerators and hot water tanks that had been dumped on the farm over the years.

It was only when Sheppeck had gone to the trouble to round up the junked items and pack them together to be hauled away, investigators said, that Cratty, assisted by his sons, moved in and allegedly took the scrap for themselves.

"Upon interview of (Larry Cratty)," Trooper Shawn Schexnaildre said in charging documents, "he freely admitted taking the items and enlisting the help" of his sons.

A message left Thursday for Larry Cratty and his sons, who have yet to be arraigned on charges, was not returned.