Joel Sanchez shook his head with a shy smile. "No, I don't think so," he said, politely refusing to be hailed as a hero.
Theirs is a business rife with crime, but Sanchez and his brother were able to resist the crushing pressure to break the law - and ratted out their boss in the process.
Joel and Noe Sanchez work at M and S Recycling in Phoenix. Metal recycling has become known in crime circles as a place to make a quick buck off stolen merchandise - copper wiring, air conditioning materials and in a case this week, brass cemetery vases.
Court paperwork obtained by CBS 5 News shows the Sanchez brothers were hard at work Tuesday morning when two men drove in with a car full of shiny metal vases to sell. The yard manager, Edel Rojas-Calderon, allegedly agreed to purchase the 1,700 pounds of metal in two transactions - one on the books and another in an under-the-table deal.
Arizona statutes require scrap yards to submit purchase records to law enforcement within 24 hours of a transaction. Those records include a description and photo of the material, plus the name, ID and photo of the seller. According to court records, Rojas-Calderon told Sanchez to create one bill of sale for 16 vases, and ignore the 281 more that would not be reported.
Joel Sanchez told CBS 5 News it was a tough decision to go against his boss, but it was the right thing to do.
Documents filed in the case against Rojas-Calderon say Sanchez suspected the urns were stolen and asked the boss more than once, "Are you sure you want to buy these?" Rojas-Calderon allegedly disregarded his employees, instead telling them to load the vases into his personal pickup truck, which is not the normal practice. Rojas-Calderon then told the Sanchez brothers to lie to anyone who asked.
The brothers couldn't do it.
Earlier in the week, Phoenix police had been notified of the theft of 500 vases from Phoenix Memorial Cemetery in the North Valley. Officers notified recycling businesses to be on the lookout for the thieves. So with the illegal deal going down before his very eyes, Joel Sanchez called police.
CBS 5 News first reported that detectives arrived, confiscated the first 16 vases and ultimately made four arrests. Matthew Sheets, 34, Troy Yancy, 47, and Acacia O'Dowd, 36, and an unidentified man face theft charges.
Rojas-Calderon, meanwhile, hid the remaining vases from police and lied about his scheme. For the next two days, the Sanchez brothers urged their boss to come clean. Joel Sanchez would later tell investigators he could not work for a man who would break the law like that.
Although Sanchez declined a formal interview, he told CBS 5 News he and his brother talked it over and felt they simply had to push for what is right.
Pressure from the brothers and from police finally worked. With the investigation well under way, Edel Rojas-Calderon called detectives to turn himself in. He was booked into the Maricopa County Jail on one count of trafficking in stolen property.
Nearly all of the stolen vases have been recovered. They are valued at $500 each. Rojas-Calderon paid roughly $6 for each one.
Copyright 2012 KPHO (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.
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