Alleged Baltimore nickel thief arrested on federal charges

Dec 01, 2010 | 01:34 PM | Sean Davidson

Federal authorities have charged a scrapyard owner in the theft of $2.5 million worth of nickel belonging to BHP Billiton Marketing from a Baltimore port, just days after arresting him as he purportedly planned to leave the country.

Alan Verschleisser, 65, was charged Monday with knowingly possessing goods stolen from interstate and foreign shipments of freight for his alleged role in the September heist of four trailers holding 48 two-tonne bags of nickel briquettes owned by BHP Billiton, as well as two trailers containing 114,000 pounds of ferrochrome owned by Dover, Del.-based Ryan Alloys Company.

Verschleisser had been arrested in September along with two drivers in connection with the theft but was released on bail. He was rearrested Nov. 26 after agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security received information that he was planning to fly to Tel Aviv on a Nov. 29 Delta flight from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, according to the criminal complaint filed Monday by Homeland Security in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.....