Palm Harbor Trio Accused of Stealing $40K in Copper Pipes

Three Palm Harbor men accused of stealing about $40,000 in copper pipes face burglary charges.

St. Petersburg Police say that Gerald Bryan Waytowich, Roy Anthony Waytowich and Anthony James Henderson plotted and acted together to steal copper piping and electric cables from a construction site and sell them for money on Aug. 25.

All three men have been arrested and charged, authorities say.

According to arrest records, Gerald Waytowich, 37, of Lake Shore Drive, loaned his truck the afternoon of Aug. 25 and rode with Roy Waytowich and Henderson to a St. Petersburg construction site with plans to take copper pipes, according to arrest records.

The men are accused of taking between $36,000 and $40,000 from an outbuilding at the Staybridge Hotel construction site, 940 5th Ave. South, St. Petersburg, and loading it into the truck while no one was around, arrest records say.

Roy Waytowich, 30, and Henderson, 36, both of Citrus Hill Road, were stopped in the truck three hours after the burglary with the copper pipe in tow. They three men were seen loading the stripped pipe into the truck on the side of the Citrus Hill Road home the following day, according to arrest records.

After it was loaded, Gerald Waytowich drove them to a friend of one of the men to sell it for an unknown amount of money, arrest records say.

Gerald Waytowich is charged with burglary of an unoccupied structure and dealing in stolen property, both felonies. Both Henderson and Roy Waytowich are charged with two felony counts each of burglary of an unoccupied structure. 

All three men are in custody at Pinellas County Jail, each on $20,000 bond.