Technician accused of stealing 4,000 cell phone tower batteries

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (WPVI) -- A man is suspected of stealing more than 4,000 cell phone tower batteries from across four states since September.

Police say their suspect stole them from more than 500 towers stretching from North Jersey to Delaware.

Upper Merion investigators say the suspect was a technician subcontracted out for cell phone carriers like Sprint and Verizon.

"His experience in the industry and his knowledge of the gate access codes and tamper switches allowed him to go undetected for quite a while," Upper Merion Police Detective Andrew Rathfon said.

Police say the suspect took the stolen batteries to Green Dog Recycling in Philadelphia.

There he'd get roughly $30 a battery.

"Over the last nine months, he was paid $122,000 by this particular scrapyard," Rathfon said.

Upper Merion detectives cracked the case after Detective Rathfon called Green Dog Recycling on a hunch.

The recycling plant was the place of sale for hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen storm grates in January.

The owner of Green Dog told the detective he had purchases loads of batteries.

He gave them a name and police quickly had their suspect.

"Hard to say [if the scrapyard knew,] but when you purchase that many storm grates or batteries, it's hard not to notice," Rathfon said.

Green Dog has not been charged and the company refused comment.

Police say the suspect is cooperating.

We are not naming him because he hasn't yet been formally charged.

Almost all of the alleged thefts occurred outside of Upper Merion so authorities there are hopeful state or federal investigators will take over the case.

"Last I heard there was 40 to 50 departments that were affected by this," Rathfon said.