Couple suspected of boosting tractor transmission

MERCED — The Merced County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday arrested a man on suspicion of stealing a tractor transmission with the help of his wife.

A report came into the sheriff’s department on Tuesday morning about a tractor transmission that had been stolen overnight in the 1400 block of South Highway 59. The transmission had reportedly been taken off of a pallet at the back of a store.

While checking out local scrap metal yards for the stolen transmission, Deputy Ken Jew received a call from a scrap metal recycler on Highway 59 indicating that someone was trying to sell tractor parts.

When Jew arrived at the recycling yard, he found a 36-year-old female, who has not been named, with her 3-year-old child and 21-year-old Scott Wetherington. In the bed of the truck they were driving were parts from the tractor transmission, according to sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Tom MacKenzie.

After interviewing the two adults, Jew then went to speak with the female’s husband, 33-year-old Angel Sierra, at his home. Through all of the interviews, deputies determined that Sierra and his wife had stolen the tractor at some point during the previous night, MacKenzie said.

Wetherington was not involved in the crime. He was at Sierra’s home on Tuesday when he asked to borrow their truck. Sierra’s wife said that was fine as long as he drove her to the recycling center first, deputies said.

Unfortunately for Wetherington, he had two outstanding felony warrants for burglary and possession of stolen equipment and was taken into custody.

“That earned him a trip to jail on $110,000 bail,” MacKenzie said.

Sierra was arrested on charges of grand theft. His wife faces the same charges, but was not arrested at the time due to her young child. Deputy Jew filed a complaint against her with the district attorney.

Scott Wetherington