Six in custody after copper piping stolen from two vacant houses in Maple Heights

MAPLE HEIGHTS, Ohio - Six people were arrested in Maple Heights after police say they stole copper piping from two vacant houses.

A neighbor called police after seeing three or four people milling around a house on Home Avenue on Tuesday, Lt. Todd Hansen said.

When officers arrived at the row of three houses, they didn’t find anything. But soon they spotted a man in the yard of the middle house with copper piping, Hansen said. That man was detained.

As officers checked on all three houses, they found doors and windows were not secured and the two vacant houses were missing copper pipes, Hansen said.

Four adults, one juvenile male and one juvenile female were taken into custody. Hansen said police recovered the piping. One man did try to flee from police and there was a brief struggle in a back yard.

Earlier in the day, Maple Heights police would only confirmed that there was a police incident on Home Avenue near Broadway Avenue. NewsChannel5 was tipped off by scanner traffic that a house was surrounded by police just before 11 a.m.