ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – A Ballwin man is behind bars after an ankle monitor linked him to a copper wire heist and a high-speed police pursuit in St. Louis County.
The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has charged Ryan Martin, 37, with five felonies amid the investigation, including first-degree property damage, tampering with a motor vehicle, stealing in excess of $25,000, stealing a vehicle and aggravated fleeing from a stop.
Authorities arrested Martin on Monday following a police pursuit of a stolen vehicle. The chase began Monday afternoon in Fenton and ended with Martin reportedly crashing the stolen vehicle in St. Louis city limits.
According to court documents obtained by FOX 2, the vehicle police attempted to stop on Monday was reported stolen in February from a south St. Louis County car dealership. GPS data from Martin’s ankle monitor showed he was in the vicinity of the dealership when the vehicle was originally stolen.
Police found the stolen vehicle at a Starbucks in Fenton around 1 p.m. Monday and attempted to conduct a traffic stop before the driver rushed away from the scene. The driver, later identified as Martin, violated several traffic signals and weaved in and out of traffic while reaching speeds over 100 miles per hour during a police pursuit, according to court documents.
Martin crashed the stolen vehicle some time later in St. Louis City and tried to run away prior to his arrest.
While investigators reviewed GPS data from his ankle monitor, they learned that Martin was linked to stealing the crashed vehicle in February, in addition to a copper wire heist from an Ameren substation months later.
Martin is accused of stealing $285,000 worth of copper wire from the Ameren substation at Mercy Hospital South on May 11, 2024.
Court documents state that a Freightliner truck, stolen in Fenton, was used to carry out the heist. The truck was used to steal a flatbed trailer loaded with three large spools of copper wire. Some time after the theft, the trailer was returned to the hospital parking lot, but the spools of wire were still missing.
GPS tracking data revealed Martin was in the vicinity of a Fenton business where the truck was stolen, Mercy Hospital during the copper wire heist and one location in Jefferson County before the trailer was returned.
Three spools were later found on a property in Jefferson County owned by an associate of Martin, close to the area where the GPS ankle monitor tracked him, per court documents. Two of the copper wire spools were found empty.
Martin was taken into custody on Oct. 18 and booked into St. Louis County Jail on a $250,000 cash-only bond, according to Missouri online court records.
