Police: City Man Stole Scrap Metal to Buy Heroin

A Bethlehem man is accused of stealing more than $900 in copper and aluminum from a business on Mauch Chunk Road in the city from late November until January, according to court records.

Justin Theodore Slack, 23, of 1451 Iron St., admitted to taking part in the thefts of aluminum pipes, copper wire and welding led copper from , 1428 Mauch Chunk Road, according to the arrest affidavit.

According to the warrant, Slack and two accomplices would take the stolen metals to scrap yards in Easton or Catasauqua to sell, using the money to feed his heroin habit. Slack told police he started stealing from the company after he was fired from a job there in November.

Slack and the same two accomplices – Matthew Scartoli, 23, of Easton and Stephanie Roth, 19, of Bethlehem – were charged in November for a similar scheme in which they would from the Arbor Fence Co. in Bethlehem Township and take them to sell to H. Blinderman & Son, a scrap metal yard in Hellertown.

Slack was arraigned on felony charges of burglary and criminal trespass and misdemeanor charges of theft, receiving stolen property and criminal conspiracy in front of District Judge James Narlesky and released on $10,000 bail.