Jason Porter

MUDDY CREEK TWP — An alleged thief was arrested Tuesday on charges he stole about $20,000 worth of building materials from a township business.

Jason R. Porter, 38, of Muddy Creek Township is accused of taking the property from Desuta Concrete Forms on Route 19 between Sept. 1 and Tuesday. He is being held in the Butler County Prison on $20,000 bail.

Company owner Dave Desuta credited a newly installed surveillance system for helping solve the crime.

The business around Labor Day first noticed aluminum and steel materials missing from its six-acre, fenced-in yard.

Rodney Dempsey, operations manager, led efforts to set up the surveillance system, Desuta said. The investment quickly paid off.

Cameras about 5:30 a.m. Sunday caught images of a man entering the property in a pickup truck, and taking galvanized steel post shores, authorities said.

About 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to Desuta and court documents, the same man and truck were back at the business. The thief this time took about 125 galvanized steel clamps.

Police later that day stopped the suspect, who was identified as Porter, at a New Castle scrap yard, where he had gone with the stolen clamps.

Those clamps, valued at a combined $6,250, were subsequently returned to the business. Desuta said the other stolen property has not been recovered.

Police say Porter subsequently confessed to taking the materials during a police interview at the barracks.

He is charged with felony counts of theft and receiving stolen property, and a summary count of defiant trespass.