Theft

A 32-year-old Germantown woman pleaded guilty Friday to using a government credit card for personal use, buying 119 iPads, a mattress set and house cleaning services, according to the Maryland U.S. attorney's office. Tamia M. McCoy, a former employee for the National Institutes of Health, faces up to 10 years in prison at her sentencing in Baltimore's U.S. district court, set for July 26. In all, she stole between $70,000 and $120,000 prosecutors said. “McCoy brazenly sought to profit at the behest of tax payer dollars.

The owner of a downtown 7-Eleven that was attacked by a mob of youths drawn by a free Slurpee promotion says an envelope filled with the day's receipts — $6,600 in cash — went missing during the melee, according to Baltimore police. Salman Iqbal told police that the money was in his front right shirt pocket while he was being attacked Wednesday afternoon after he confronted up to 40 youths wearing yellow school shirts and khaki pants. He reported that some youths had stolen candy from the store on Light Street, near the Inner Harbor.

An Anne Arundel County firefighter admitted Wednesday to emptying the bank accounts of a regional firefighter charity when he was its treasurer, a crime that has decimated the organization. Lt. Joshua Lee Constuble, 38, of Crofton pleaded guilty to felony theft in Annapolis District Court. Judge Megan B. Johnson sentenced him to five weekends in jail and suspended the rest of a two-year sentence. During 18 months of probation, he must repay the Emerald Society about $2,100, the amount he still owes on the more than $7,400 he took.

A theft this month of 311 gallons of gasoline from a station in Baltimore is one in a series of similar incidents, according to the station's owner, who says people have been disabling pumps and allowing friends and relatives to fill their tanks for free Mehdi Rezakhan, who owns BP stations in Remington and East Baltimore, said each businesses has been hit once, and stations owned by friends have been taken several times, one for 1,800 gallons of...

A 59-year-old Pasadena woman admitted Monday to stealing more than $86,000 from the Howard County produce business where she worked as a bookkeeper, police said. Joan Elizabeth Krempa, of the 8400 block of Miramar Road, pleaded guilty to a single count of theft of more than $500 in Howard County Circuit Court. Krempa said she forged the signature of the owner of Parade Produce in Jessup between February and November of 2008; police said she wrote checks amounting to $60,501 and deposited the money in her personal account.

As discussed on Monday, Baltimore County police announced a task force to combat the growing problem of metals theft. The Sun's Arthur Hirsch writes about the new program, and some other unique ways to go after the thieves. Baltimore Gas and Electric is going to start painting its copper wires lime green, so that when they show up at recycling plants, the person behind the counter will know they're stolen and not offer money. Thieves stole so much BGE wire earlier this year that it knocked out power to homes in Essex.

A case in which a Parkton woman was charged with theft of a dog in 2009 was settled before the case went to trial, according to court documents. According to assistant state's attorney Jared Green, Leslie Slebzak was accused of stealing "D.O.G. ", a 1-year-old male Brittany spaniel belonging to Parkton neighbor Billie Jo Ashe. Ashe said she discoverd her dog in August 2010 tied up in Slebzak's garage and the dog had been neutered, according to Green. A criminal case was filed in Baltimore County District in July 2011.

Annapolis' finance director had just finished meeting with Mayor Joshua J. Cohen on June 7, when he returned to his office as he did each day and locked the vault that protects the daily payments to the city. The next morning, director Timothy E. Elliott was the first to arrive at the office around 7:30 a.m., he said. A courier arrived soon after to pick up the city's daily bank deposit, and Elliott made a startling discovery: the bag, containing about $154,000 in checks and cash, was gone.

When residents pay water bills and civil citations at the cashier's window at Westminster City Hall, the payment stays in a drawer until the end of the day, when the contents are counted by a supervisor and placed in a vault. A city police officer comes each afternoon and transports the funds to the bank. In Howard County, two county employees must be present when putting payments for property taxes or parking tickets in a locked box that stores the cash, check and credit card payments.

Area police departments offer these common-sense tips to protect yourself from theft around the holidays:* Look for well-lighted parking lots.* Lock your car. Try not to leave any packages inside, even in the trunk.* If you find yourself carrying heavy packages in a shopping area, try to arrange to leave them at a store's layaway counter or with a clerk until you finish.* Have your keys ready before going to your car so you don't have to fumble for them at the car door.* Shop with a friend.

Two copper-theft suspects arrested Tuesday on the Spring Grove Hospital Center campus in Catonsville have been charged with burglary, theft and destruction of property, according to Maryland State Police. Police have also recovered more than 130 pounds of copper pipe the pair had collected before their arrests, which state police said would be worth about $400 if sold as scrap. Charged were Dennis W. Dyer, 43, of the 8100 block of Mild Haven Road in Dundalk, and Matthew R. Blizzard, 29, who police believe lives in the Baltimore County men's homeless shelter off Wade Ave. on the psychiatric hospital's campus.

A day after Baltimore County police set up a task force to target metal thieves who strip homes and businesses, tactical officers found themselves surrounding an abandoned state hospital building where two men were trying to steal copper pipes. Someone called about two suspicious men in an asbestos-laden building at Spring Grove State Hospital in Catonsville on Tuesday afternoon. The bystander saw the men carrying crow-bars and saws into the building, closed since 1974, according to Maryland State Police.

As discussed on Monday, Baltimore County police announced a task force to combat the growing problem of metals theft. The Sun's Arthur Hirsch writes about the new program, and some other unique ways to go after the thieves. Baltimore Gas and Electric is going to start painting its copper wires lime green, so that when they show up at recycling plants, the person behind the counter will know they're stolen and not offer money. Thieves stole so much BGE wire earlier this year that it knocked out power to homes in Essex.

Baltimore County police are announcing today a new task force to combat the growing problem of metals theft that his hitting homeowners and businesses throughout the region. The Metal Thefts Team is being called the area's first law enforcement group dedicated to investigating the thefts, which include everything from ripping copper gutters off homes to breaking into Baltimore Gas and Electric facilities and taking electronic devices. The president of BGE, Ken DeFontes, is expected to join Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz and Police Chief Jim Johnson at the announcement, at a BGE training center in White Marsh.

After the power failed in an Essex neighborhood earlier this year, BGE officials discovered that someone had been stealing copper wire from the tops of utility poles. Oddly enough, however, they found no marks on the poles indicating that the culprit had climbed roughly 40 feet to reach the wire. Baltimore County police figured they might have their suspect when an officer on patrol in Dundalk spotted an unmarked white Ford van equipped with a bucket lift, and a man alongside the van stripping insulation from copper wire, according to a police report.

A 32-year-old Germantown woman pleaded guilty Friday to using a government credit card for personal use, buying 119 iPads, a mattress set and house cleaning services, according to the Maryland U.S. attorney's office. Tamia M. McCoy, a former employee for the National Institutes of Health, faces up to 10 years in prison at her sentencing in Baltimore's U.S. district court, set for July 26. In all, she stole between $70,000 and $120,000 prosecutors said. “McCoy brazenly sought to profit at the behest of tax payer dollars.

A 59-year-old Pasadena woman who police said stole more than $86,000 from a Howard County produce company where she worked as a bookkeeper pleaded guilty to theft on Monday in Howard County Circuit Court. Joan Elizabeth Krempa of the 8400 block of Miramar Road forged the signature of the owner of Parade Produce in Jessup between February and November of 2008. According to police, she wrote checks amounting to $60,501 and deposited the money into her personal account. She also ordered a check card that gave her access to the company's checking account and stole another $25,600, some of which she used to pay for bail in an unrelated criminal case in Anne Arundel County.

A Baltimore police officer was indicted yesterday by a city grand jury on felony theft and misconduct in office charges after investigators determined he possessed a stolen Jaguar, officials said. Ivan D. Dow, 27, who was assigned to the Eastern District, had his police powers revoked in October, when police discovered that he had a stolen 1996 Jaguar XJ6, law enforcement officials said. Dow, an eight-year veteran, told investigators that he spotted the Jaguar on a gas station parking lot in East Baltimore, officials said, and purchased it for $9,000 from a woman he identified as "Ethel."

Harford County sheriff's deputies and Maryland State Police report: Aberdeen Christian Soto-Perez, 25, of the 200 block of Plaza Court, was arrested on a bench warrant Friday in a case in which he was charged with second-degree assault. Melissa A. Crilley, 41, of the 400 block of Baltimore Street, was charged Thursday with marijuana possession. Alma Castillo-Deescobar, 32, who has addresses in the 1000 block of Warwick Drive and the 700 block of Benjamin Quarter Place in Baltimore, was arrested on a bench warrant Thursday in a case in which she was charged with theft less than $100.

You can be dead and still be a victim in this world. A new report by ID Analytics find that thieves target the dead, using their Social Security numbers to get credit cards, cellphones and other services. The company says it compared the names, Social Security numbers and birth date on 100 million credit applications in the first quarter of last year with Social Security's Death Master File to find out if applicants were using the information of the dead. The findings: -     132,000 applications had some deliberate manipulations of Social Security numbers -     66,000 were straight up-and-up ID theft of the dead -   the person had died months before the application was made.