Men arrested after allegedly trying to sell stolen copper wire

Two men from Spokane were arrested in Post Falls on Wednesday after allegedly attempting to sell more than 600 pounds of copper wire to a Post Falls recycler.

Jason W. Wing, 28, and William R. Fossell, 22, were taken into custody and booked into Kootenai County Jail, charged with felony possession of stolen property.

Wing and Fossell were arrested after the recycler became suspicious when he noticed that the wire, in addition to being unusually clean, was stamped with "Avista."

The investigation revealed that two Spokane contractors had reported a break-in to their job sites in the last week and several rolls of copper wire belonging to Avista had been stolen. Numerous tools were also reported stolen.

One of the victims of the theft responded to the scene and identified the wire as well as several tools Wing and Fossell had in their van, as belonging to him. The victim estimated the copper value at over $1,600.