HOLY sh.... -- The thefts included a Tomahawk Missile simulator

[radfringe]

This happened in my own county...

The ‘pennies on the dollar’ gang?
Brothers charged in $4.5M theft ring that earned them little, authorities say.
By TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER
http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/16288049.htm

---snip--

The thefts included a Tomahawk Missile simulator and other equipment valued at $2.8 million that was being carried by a tractor-trailer stolen from Binghamton, N.Y., in 2004. The thieves, apparently unaware of what they had stolen, abandoned the simulator on the side of the roadway in Blakeslee, where it was discovered by police, State Attorney General Tom Corbett said at a press conference Wednesday.

The theft of the missile simulator, owned by the federal government, is among a number of mistakes authorities say Gary Gerber Jr. and his brothers, Warren and Richard Gerber, made during a two-year crime spree in which they conspired to steal more than 60 vehicles and loads of cargo.

[maxrandb]

1. Damn! I thought this was another Sandy Berger thread! n/t

[seriousstan]

3. He thought he could get away with that in his pants?????

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. I am reminded of a story my grandfather told from WW II

During the war, theft was a serious problem and profiteering was a big crime.

There was a civilian contractor who worked on an Army base, a contractor overseeing the construction of new buildings. Every day, he left the base with a wheelbarrow full of dirt. "It's for my victory garden at home," he would tell the gate guard. "I've got sandy soil and this is just the thing to improve it." The guard would always spend several minutes digging through the dirt, certain that he was smuggling out stolen contraband. But he never found anything, and the contractor was allowed to leave.

Years pass, and chance brings the contractor and guard back together in a bar. The guard recognizes the contractor and introduces himself. As they swap war stories, the guard asks, "I know in my gut that you were stealing from the base; you always looked so smug when you left. The statute of limitations has run out, and I'm not a guard any more, I'm a plumber. So come on and tell me: what were you taking?"

The contractor smiled. "You were so busy going through the dirt, you never thought to ask where I had gotten the wheelbarrow itself."