Authorities say mother, children part of chop shop group

HARDIN COUNTY - By Gerry L. Dickert/The Silsbee Bee - A family that steals together, stays together ... in the Hardin County Jail.

A mother and her three children are among more than a half-dozen people accused of stealing 18-wheelers in Houston and Hardin County and cutting the trailers to pieces to sell as scrap metal.

  According to Hardin County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Gary Spears, several tractor-trailers had been stolen over the past several months, including two in Hardin County. The department had been looking into several leads when they received a call from Harris County Sheriff’s Office investigators saying they had located one of the missing trailers that had been outfitted with a GPS locator. The trailer was reported to be in Batson in the west part of Hardin County. Spears and Detective Alvin Roberts of the Southeast Texas Auto Theft Task Force drove over to Batson and found the missing trailer in the back yard of a home on Mills Road. Suspects in the case were using cutting torches to take the trailer apart when the two arrived on the scene.

“They were in the process of cutting it apart when we got there,” Spears said. “You have this big tanker trailer there and they’re just cutting away at it.”

Two men, identified as 19-year-old James Settle and 28-year-old William George, were using the torches to cut apart the trailer. Settle was arrested at the scene but George ran and is still being sought by law enforcement. Also arrested was Frances George, 58, Cynthia George, 30, and Sheridan Jankowski, 19.

  According to reports, Frances owns the house on Mills Road. Settle and William George are her sons, while Cynthia George is her daughter. Jankowski is William George’s girlfriend, officials say.

   All suspects have been charged with felony theft, Spears said. A warrant for the arrest of William George, who was released from the state penitentiary in June,  has also been issued on the same count. Settle and Jankowski also have prior arrest records.

   Officials say that the suspects were stealing 18-wheelers in Houston and Hardin County, as many as five or six altogether, and driving them into the western part of Hardin County. Some were tanker trucks while others were box trailers. Once there, they would drop the trailer in the back yard of the George home, then drive the tractor part of the rig into remote areas of the area where they would then strip items such as CB radios from the cab. Once they returned to the trailer, it was cut into bits using cutting torches and the aluminum and steel sold to scrap metal yards in Liberty and Houston. According to Spears, the group had taken in excess of 30,000 pounds of aluminum from the vehicles to sell.

   Harris County called the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office to notify them that a company had located one of its stolen vehicles using a GPS locator. 

  “We have evidence at the scene that links them to at least two other stolen vehicles,” said Spears. “We’re just really getting started on this.”

   Spears said that warrants will be issued on two to three other suspects wanted in the case. He estimates that the stolen 18-wheelers are valued at up to $50,000 each.