Two charged in steel theft

Des Plaines police used a vehicle description to crack a theft case, but the stolen stainless steel had already been sold to a scrap yard in Chicago, authorities said.

Two Chicago men, Omar Lopex-Vega, 27, of the 3800 block of West Lawrence Avenue, and Arizmendez Pachura, 45, of the 4700 block of North Harding, were charged on Feb. 6 with commercial burglary and are scheduled to be in court in Skokie on Feb. 17, police said.

Pachura also faces a deportation warrant.

Police said that on Jan. 23, thieves broke a window in a door at O'Hare Spring, 2190 S. Oxford Road, and opened a bay door to remove a 530 pound coil of stainless steel.

An officer stopped a vehicle matching the description of the one used in the theft in the 2400 block of South Wolf Road and during questioning at the station, the occupants implicated themselves in the burglary, police reports said.