From http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/03/contractors_admits_stealing_mo.html
Contractor admits swiping police-fire radios intended for 3 counties
Posted by cjrothma March 27, 2008 20:09PM
John P. Holmes said he didn't intend to swipe the more than three-dozen police and fire radios that went missing from the Warren County 911 Communications Center.
But when they ended up in his vehicle, the contractor from Pennsylvania couldn't resist the temptation to sell them to pay off his mounting bills, he told a judge today.
"When I noticed the equipment in the back of my truck, I failed as a responsible person to return them," said Holmes, 39, of Allentown, Pa., who pleaded guilty today to third-degree theft and agreed to pay back more than $58,000 for missing radios.
Holmes was hired last year to upgrade the fire sprinkler system as part of a renovation of the communications center in Franklin Township.
The 41 stolen radios, received through a grant, were to be disbursed in the Delaware River counties of Warren, Sussex and Hunterdon as part of a project to improve regional communication in the event of a natural disaster, authorities said.
The radios were reported missing on Nov. 2.
Radios were peddled on the eBay internet auction site, and some ended up as far away as Florida, authorities said.
Holmes told Superior Court Judge John Pursel that after he had fallen ill last year, he got behind in his electric and mortgage bill payments.
Contractor admits swiping police-fire radios intended for 3 counties
Posted by cjrothma March 27, 2008 20:09PM
John P. Holmes said he didn't intend to swipe the more than three-dozen police and fire radios that went missing from the Warren County 911 Communications Center.
But when they ended up in his vehicle, the contractor from Pennsylvania couldn't resist the temptation to sell them to pay off his mounting bills, he told a judge today.
"When I noticed the equipment in the back of my truck, I failed as a responsible person to return them," said Holmes, 39, of Allentown, Pa., who pleaded guilty today to third-degree theft and agreed to pay back more than $58,000 for missing radios.
Holmes was hired last year to upgrade the fire sprinkler system as part of a renovation of the communications center in Franklin Township.
The 41 stolen radios, received through a grant, were to be disbursed in the Delaware River counties of Warren, Sussex and Hunterdon as part of a project to improve regional communication in the event of a natural disaster, authorities said.
The radios were reported missing on Nov. 2.
Radios were peddled on the eBay internet auction site, and some ended up as far away as Florida, authorities said.
Holmes told Superior Court Judge John Pursel that after he had fallen ill last year, he got behind in his electric and mortgage bill payments.
