Stupid people of the week

Army Vet Pleads Guilty in Heist Stealing $2 Million in Combat Gear from Fort Hood

An Army veteran involved in a multimillion-dollar heist of combat gear at Fort Hood, Texas, accepted a plea deal Tuesday and is set to be sentenced this summer.

Jessica Smith admitted to her role in stealing more than $2 million worth of Army equipment, breaking into 17 storage containers with bolt cutters in June 2021 with another veteran who was a civilian employee at the base, Brandon Brown. His trial is set for later this spring.

In March 2021, Brown connected with Smith, asking for her help stealing the equipment — mostly optics soldiers use to shoot and operate at night, according to court documents. Because Brown was a civilian employee at Fort Hood, he had easy access to the base, investigators say. They allege that he also told Smith they would give the stolen goods to a local man, Nathan Nichols, who would sell the equipment online.

nvestigators say the pair stole three PEQ-15 laser range finders, 57 PAS-13 thermal scopes, four PVS-13 night vision scopes, and 10 PVS-7 night vision goggles on June 16.

The following day, they allegedly gave the equipment to Nichols in Corpus Christi, Texas, some 260 miles from Fort Hood. Nichols also pleaded guilty and is set to be sentenced in June.

Nichols posted the equipment on eBay two weeks after the heist, with the stolen goods all together valued at $2,176,000. Army investigators were able to match images on eBay showing the serial numbers to those that were stolen from Fort Hood, court records say.

According to Army investigators, only $1,119,240.00 worth of gear was recovered after federal agents searched his home in July.

Source; Military.com

For years an officer looked like he was writing traffic tickets, but he wasn’t, police say

A Lebanon, Ohio, police officer resigned recently after his department discovered he was filing internal paperwork to make it appear that he was writing traffic tickets, but the drivers were not actually being cited, officials said.

An investigation into the now-former officer Eric Holmes has been sent to the Warren County Prosecutor’s Office to review for potential criminal charges.

Documents from an internal investigation state Holmes joined the Lebanon Police Department in 2015, but investigators said he started having issues with his tickets around about four years ago.

”From 2018 through 2022, Officer Holmes allegedly issued 613 traffic citations, in which 140 or 22% of those appear to [be] missing from court records,” the investigation states.

Police Chief Jeffrey Mitchell said in a statement that Holmes “conducted traffic stops where no citation was issued to the driver and later … would complete a traffic citation form and submit this citation to the agency for internal accountability only.”

For those tickets in question, nothing made it to court, no one was cited or fined, Mitchell said.

Holmes was placed on administrative leave on March 3 and later resigned, officials said.

According to the internal investigation, Holmes told his supervisors that he would be “frustrated” as he was writing a ticket because he was in a rush and dealing with multiple things, then stop issuing the ticket and let the driver go.

Holmes denied that he was filing the citation internally to boost his numbers and instead said he felt he was doing it out of embarrassment and frustration with himself.

The department said the fraudulent citations were discovered during an internal audit and Holmes resigned in the midst of the investigation. The department has taken steps to better track citations and whether they are being properly handled, the release said.

“The actions of the former employee were his alone and no citizen was issued a citation from these fraudulent citations,” Mitchell said. “The actions of this former employee [do] not reflect the values and character of this agency.”

The Warren County Prosecutor’s Office declined to comment on the situation.

Source; Cincinnati.com

FBI arrests Massachusetts school superintendent accused of texting 99 threats about police chief candidate

A Massachusetts school superintendent was arrested Wednesday in connection with an investigation into threatening messages sent to a local candidate for police chief.

Chicopee Superintendent of Schools Lynn Clark is accused of sending 99 text messages to intimidate an applicant into withdrawing for the top police job, according to the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts.

Clark appeared in federal court Wednesday on a charge of making false statements to federal investigators. Her attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case was referred to the FBI in December after the candidate, who was not identified, withdrew the application to be police chief. Chicopee Mayor John Vieau told FBI agents that he felt the withdrawal “unfairly affected the integrity of the selection process,” the criminal complaint said.

According to the complaint, the messages threatened “reputational harm” if the candidate did not bow out of the competitive job search.

The candidate told FBI investigators that some messages included “private material” the candidate had sent to Clark through personal email. Clark also sent messages she had received that included instructions to pressure the candidate to withdraw the application, the complaint said.

Clark met with investigators in December and January, saying said she had received numerous threatening messages, as well, the complaint said. She had “deleted every text message from her cellular telephone” and told FBI agents that she feared information that was leaked about the job candidate would also “tarnish her reputation.”

She is alleged to have urged FBI agents to close the investigation before they identified a suspect, casting suspicion on other city employees and even members of her own family.

Further investigation found that Clark bought fake phone numbers through an app to send about 99 messages to herself, the job candidate and the candidate’s wife, the complaint said. Records from what agents described as a “burner app” found connections to Clark’s home internet service provider.

When she was confronted with the evidence tying her to the burner app, Clark told FBI agents that she wanted the candidate to be “knocked down a peg,” the complaint said. Clark also said that she felt the applicant’s accomplishments were a direct result of some of her own work and that the candidate’s promotion would negatively affect her position as superintendent.

The mayor’s office said it was aware of Clark’s arrest Wednesday morning and was working to ensure the schools continue to operate smoothly, “as the education of children remains paramount.”

“Today’s arrest is disheartening for the City of Chicopee,” the statement said. “The School Committee will meet tonight in executive session to decide on a proper course of action.”

Clark could face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 if she is convicted, the Justice Department said in a statement Wednesday.

Source; NBC News

2 men accused of posing as federal officers to get near Secret Service

Hey, these two middle eastern guys showed up and are giving me a free penthouse apartment for a year and a $2k rifle, do you think that sounds suspicious? Not to the Secret Service!

The FBI on Wednesday arrested two men charged with impersonating federal law enforcement in an investigation that has placed four U.S. Secret Service members on leave.

Federal authorities accused Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 36, of obtaining handguns, rifles and other material to pose as Department of Homeland Security employees. They said the men used the guise to get closer to members of federal law enforcement and the defense community — including a U.S. Secret Service agent assigned to the first lady’s protective detail.

Taherzadeh provided members of the Secret Service and an employee of DHS with items such as “rent-free apartments (with a total yearly rent of over $40,000 per apartment), iPhones, surveillance systems, a drone, a flat screen television, a case for storing an assault rifle, a generator, and law enforcement paraphernalia,” according to an FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in D.C.

Taherzadeh also offered the employees use of vehicles he said belonged to the government and offered to buy a $2,000 assault rifle for an agent assigned to protect the first lady, the affidavit said.

The complaint said that four members of the Secret Service were placed on administrative leave as of April 4. The Secret Service said in a statement Thursday morning that the investigation is ongoing and that personnel on leave have been restricted from accessing Secret Service facilities, equipment, and systems.

Both men are scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court on Thursday and are currently detained, prosecutors said.

Investigators said the pair posed as DHS officers or employees beginning in February 2020.

The charges against Ali and Taherzadeh were made public as FBI personnel were seen in the Navy Yard area Wednesday night and were photographed on social media going into an apartment building. In a statement, the FBI said personnel were conducting “court authorized law enforcement activity” in the 900 block of First Street SE.

The investigation into the pair began March 14 when a U.S. Postal Service inspector went to a D.C. apartment complex to respond to a complaint of an assault on a letter carrier at the building, where many people who work for the FBI, Secret Service, Department of Defense and Navy live. Residents told the inspector that Ali and Taherzadeh identified themselves to residents as Department of Homeland Security investigations special agents who may have witnessed the assault, the affidavit said.

They claimed they were “special police” officers involved in undercover gang-related investigations and probes related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the affidavit states. Other residents told the inspector the men used several apartments in the building, claiming the Department of Homeland Security paid the rent, and used an SUV equipped with emergency lights they identified as “their official DHS vehicle.”

The inspector learned the men were in contact with several members of the Secret Service and had provided gifts to them or their families and use of the SUV, the affidavit states. The document did not explain how the inspector learned about the gifts.

The inspector informed DHS, which then informed the FBI.

The affidavit included photos of the men in police tactical gear with “POLICE” emblazoned on their clothing. And in one instance, Taherzadeh sent a stock photo from the Internet to one witness and claimed to be in Homeland Security Investigations training, investigators alleged.

The affidavit also detailed interviews from several witnesses. One said Taherzadeh lives in and has several apartments in the complex. He provided one person with a rent-free penthouse apartment for about one year, a value of about $40,200, the affidavit said. One of the uniformed Secret Service members assigned to protect the White House complex allegedly lived in a three-bedroom apartment valued at $48,240 from February 2021 to January 2022, the court file said.

Another witness reported seeing “a significant amount of law enforcement paraphernalia, including SWAT vests, a large safe, computers, a high-powered telescope and internal surveillance cameras in [Taherzadeh’s] apartment.”

Source; Washington Post

Category: "Teh Stoopid", Crime, Police, Stupid Criminals