Police charged Scottie A. Nixon, 39, of Cumberland, on Feb. 10 with stealing $14,662 in brass and bronze between August 2017 and Feb. 5. Nixon was arrested and freed on his own recognizance on Feb. 14. He faces trial on April 3.
According to the court papers, on Feb. 2, an employee of a Cumberland scrap dealer notified the Allegany County Sheriff’s Department of a number of “suspicious” transactions over several months. The employee identified Nixon as the seller, a sheriff’s deputy reported.
The deputy and a West Virginia State Police trooper continued investigating, and recovered from the dealer receipts for 61 transactions totaling $14,662. The trooper interviewed Nixon. The court record says the officers determined that Nixon “stripped a steam locomotive of the valuable metals…”
The deputy on Feb. 6 also alerted WMSR General Superintendent John Garner. Garner identified items as belonging to the railroad from photographs the deputy made. The court record states that $1,314.40 worth of brass was returned to the railroad.
No. 1309 was being restored for service on the railroad until work stopped last November when the project ran out of money.
Information from the district court indicates that Nixon has an arrest record going back to 1999. That includes a conviction for second-degree burglary and malicious destruction of property in September 2009. Nixon served three months of a one-year sentence in the Allegany County Detention Center.
