Okie steals from Army, caught
Rick sends us a link from Oklahoma’s KFOR where they report that David Austin Kellerman, a former state-wide official of the American Legion, has been arrested for stealing historical rifles;
During his time there, he was in charge of collecting World War II military rifles from posts throughout Oklahoma.
After finding the weapons, he was then supposed to return the rifles and property to the U.S. Army.
According to agents with the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, Kellerman did not return the rifles to the Army.
Instead, officials say he sold them to make money for himself.
“Hard work by our agents and federal investigators revealed a scheme that not only stole property from our military, but from veterans,” Attorney General Scott Pruitt said. “We are working to recover more of the stolen property and bring to justice anyone involved with this crime.”
The article goes on that 20 rifles have been recovered, but that Kellerman faces five years in prison for his little scheme. There are enough veterans being robbed by various groups in the country, we don’t need to start stealing from each other, too. Five years sounds a little light.
Category: Veterans in the news
Hmm. Sound to me like the OK American Legion might want to do a little bit of auditing and/or investigating – specifically, anything and everything this tool put his hands on while he was one of their statewide officers. I’m thinking that theft of weapons might not be the only shady stuff they’ll find.
I second that.
Like we said in my platoon during Boot Camp, STUPID DICK!!!
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes!!
I wish there were more information. I don’t get that task of collecting rifles and returning them to the Army. What the heck is that about? Also, since a thief never has title to stolen property, he cannot legally transfer the property. Thus, whoever bought the rifles–assuming they did not know they were stolen–is SOL. The best they can hope for is to receive their purchase money from the thief. At worst, if they knew the rifles to be stolen, buddy boy here may have some familiar cell mates.
I understand the part about this guy being a thief. The part I don’t understand, is the part about returning the WW II springfields; M-1’s and M1 Garrands back to the Army. After WWII any of these rifles could be bought surplus. How would the Army know after all these years if in fact these rifles were still Army property?
@5
Because they are. Issued to the Legion or VFW through DRMO
How do I know this?
Because I acquired two M-60 tanks for display a few years ago for the local VFW and AL.
Before they would release the tanks…I had to track down every Springfield and M-1 they had on record for those post…do an inventory…and photograph the data plates…and send them to the DRMO before they would release the tanks.
That tank we have sitting out there? Doesn’t belong to me or the post. Belongs to the USG..on loan to us. Just like the rifles.
To add…
About three years ago DRMO called and asked us to turn in all of the Springfields which they replaced with M-1s
I know a bird colonel who left Benning for Bragg (to become deputy of SF) and replaced, piece by piece, historical rifles with repo parts (keeping originals). He was called on the carpet when another full bird at Benning (scene of the crime)saw something was wrong with the display weapons. The thief’s answer when confronted over the telephone: “You caught my hand in the cookie jar.” He replaced the weapons and NOTHING was done.
A thief is a thief…and in both situations, they sure as hell knew better.
Unless the Army had a specific, common sense plan for those rifles, like displaying them in a museum it makes absolutely no sense that they request them back.
It sounds more like them power-tripping to get back out-dated equipment that they are going to put into a warehouse somewhere. Of course it will have to be inventoried and occasionally taken out and wiped down, all on the taxpayer’s dime.
So instead of these pieces of history being taken care of and displayed free of charge by veteran’s organizations they will be shoved in a box out of sight and Civil Servants will get paid to keep them out of sight.
Ignorance at it’s finest.
This turd is still floating around. SMH.
Former American Legion official charged with methamphetamine possession
http://newsok.com/former-american-legion-official-charged-with-methamphetamine-possession/article/4901864
This turd is claiming PTSD from his nonexistent combat deployment. It also appears he is a pedophile.
“During the interview, Tammy admitted that she would supply Kellerman with a couple of grams of meth a day,” Pancoast wrote. “Tammy stated that Kellerman would even purchase meth twice a day from her. Tammy also stated that Kellerman showed her pictures that he had on his phone of underage Mexican girls having sex with animals.”
http://newsok.com/embezzled-american-legion-funds-may-have-gone-for-drugs-records-show/article/4913487