Two California residents were arrested and charged with 15 felony burglary counts last week, more than a year after they allegedly swiped $200,000 worth of heavy duty construction equipment from two large scale area developments, authorities said.

Carlos Lopez, 32, and Ruby Palacios, 24, both of Huntington Park, Calif., are accused of pilfering the heavy duty equipment from the site of a still yet-to-be built new St. Tammany Parish public school off Louisiana Highway 1088 and the recently built Chevron headquarters off U.S. Highway 190 in Covington, Capt. George Bonnett, Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said.

“Obviously we are happy to bring the stolen property back to its rightful owners,” he said. It’s unclear if the stolen equipment delayed construction goals.

The arrests last week came more than a year after deputies honed in on Lopez and Palacios, who were arrested Oct. 9, 2007, by State Police during a traffic stop in Bossier Parish.

During the stop, a suspicious state trooper noticed the goods — including welding machines, concrete packers, saws, several generators, one worth $10,000 and more — in the back of a Budget rental vehicle the pair was driving.

Lopez, who had been working odd jobs in St. Tammany Parish, said he was headed back home to California. Palacios, a friend who came to visit Lopez, was riding back home, too.

The problem, Bonnett said, was the pair was driving north, not west toward California, with a truckload of equipment plastered with various construction company names on the side, later identified as stolen.

When troopers called to report the discovery to St. Tammany authorities, sheriff’s investigators were already at the scene of the crimes, Bonnett said.

Sheriff’s Office detectives, however, were forced to wait for more than a year to arrest the pair. State Police first booked them into Bossier Parish Jail on possession of stolen property charges following the traffic stop. They remained in jail for more than a year while appearing in Bossier courts. On Tuesday, the state of their case was unclear.

But on July 24, they were transferred to St. Tammany Parish Jail, where they were arrested again and each charged with 15 counts of simple burglary and one count of felony theft, Bonnett said.

On Tuesday afternoon, each remained in jail in lieu of a $155,000 bond, a bond officer at the jail said.

Each faces up to 12 years and a $2,000 fine for each of the burglary counts and up to 10 years for the theft count. If convicted on all charges, the pair face 190 years in prison.

Bonnett praised State Police for “preventing the thieves from getting out of the state.”

He called the heist large but not entirely uncommon as business, infrastructure and homes are sprouting like wildflowers throughout St. Tammany, one of the fastest growing parishes in the state.