From the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Baltimore:
Stole Tons of Copper Wire from APG Buildings and Locations, Including Live Wire from Electrical Boxes in a Building’s Walls and Ceilings
Timothy J. Bittner, age 52, of Bel Air, Maryland pleaded guilty today to his role in the theft of copper wire from Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG).
The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Robert Craig of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service – Mid-Atlantic Field Office;the Directorate of Emergency Services, U.S. Army Garrison, Aberdeen Proving Ground; and Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
According to his plea agreement, Bittner worked as an electrician at APG’s Department of Public Works. From March through November2011, Bittner and his conspirators used their expertise as electricians to steal copper wire from government buildings and locations in the Edgewood area of APG for resale to metal recyclers for their personal gain.
Bittner falsely reported his work time to disguise the fact that he was stealing copper wire while on duty. Bittner and his conspirators took the stolen copper wire to their government vehicles in the APG parking lot,and transferred the wire to their personal cars. They moved the stolen wire to their residences where they stripped the plastic coating off the wire by hand, which increased its market value. Bittner and his conspirators sold the copper to metal recyclers.
In June 2011, Bittner and his conspirators realized that a significant amount of copper wire was located in the ground under Eagle Point. For two days and while on duty, Bittner and his conspirators tied the exposed portion of the wire to their government vehicles, which they used to pull the wire out of the ground. Because the stolen wire weighed approximately five tons, Bittner and a co-conspirator rented storage space in Edgewood to store the stolen wire, and bought a stripping machine to remove the insulation from the copper wire at a much faster pace than by hand. Bittner and his conspirators sold the copper to metal recyclers in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware as scrap, and divided the proceeds which totaled over$48,000.
Finally, Bittner and a conspirator removed live copper wire from electrical junction boxes in the walls and ceiling of a government building. They also stole wire from another building as well as from three generators near Eagle Point. They sold this additional stolen wire for over $30,000. The cost to the U.S. Army to purchase new copper wire to re-fit the two government buildings is $33,711, including labor.
As part of his plea agreement, Bittner has agreed to forfeit $87,038, the amount of money he and his conspirators received from the sale of the stolen wire, and pay $33,711 in restitution.
Bittner faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for conspiracy to steal government. U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles,Jr. scheduled sentencing for October 30, 2012 at 1:00 p.m.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the DCIS, APG’s Directorate of Emergency Services and FBI for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Joyce K. McDonald, SpecialAssistant United States Attorney David I. Sharfstein, of the U.S. Department of Justice Tax Division, and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Marlaire, who are prosecuting the case.
I hope the judge throws the book at this bum. Having a good high paying Government job that most people would give anything to have and he blows it like this…
Good job to all involved catching this greedy piece of work.
So multiple people are involved and over days and weeks doctored time reports indicating work they’d done and then spent entire days digging up wire from another location. So federal employees pretty much do what they want and nobody’s watching? If there are multiples of employees that can spend considerable time in non-work related activities then why do we need them in the first place. It’s bad enough in this case they were stealing, but we can only assume there are others at APG, gambling, drinking, sleeping, studying for finals, whatever it might be because apparently nobody pays attention.
One should’nt make accusations, about anyone , unless your ready to back it up… Another good point…Let he without sin throw the firs stone!!!!!
Did you bother to read the sequence of events…in one case this guy and others spent two entire days digging up copper. Two days a group of highly paid electricians digs a big hole and Joe Manager doesn’t ever ask “what are you guys doing over there”? Do they not have supervisors that bother to see where everybody is? Does that make sense to you? If it’s that lax; which it’s obvious it is you want me to believe nobody else takes advantage. I have the ability to pick up on the obvious. By the way, another of this group of jokers managed to steal a 2700# piece of aluminum. Seems like if anybody was paying attention hauling something that big might raise a single question – at least curiosity as it was being dragged off.
They are “civil servants.” Why would anyone ever ask what they were doing? Civil servants, especially lifelong ones are basically welfare recipients, sucking at the tit of capitalism, that is, those of us who actually HAVE to work for a living, and don’t get up and decide whether we take a day off simply due to “the sun not looking right.” Of coursed, I’ll get pelted for these comments. Sometimes by those trying to protect their welfare check, and at others by those honestly ignorant because, like Obama, they think the way the government does it is the way business does it. Sad commmentary on America.
For some, incompetence is tolerated, sloth is tolerated, and evenmalicious behavior is tolerated. It does depend on the diligence of the manager to a degree. Complaining about the misbehavior of others only causes the person doing the reporting to be regarded as “Not a team player”. I’m sure Capatin Obvious can comment on this as well. There are many that have the drive and desire to do a good job and to improve things for others. There is unfortunately a tendency to regard the mediocre as satisfactory. My manager tells me it will be like this until I retire. I am waiting for him to retire.
“For some, incompetence is tolerated, sloth is tolerated, and even malicious behavior is tolerated.” – Porter
Verified, unfortunately.
I’m currently in trouble again for recent actions against such behaviours.
stealing government property and cheating on work time is rampant at APG and Edgewood.
I think that is true, unfortunately. and at many such installations all over the country – and not just military bases! It is unbelievable that people like that can sleep at night when they’ve stolen materiel from their employers. Of course, I guess Jerry Sandusky was sleeping pretty well too.
Same rule as above applies,,,,If you know so much ,,you should be rich, cuz the gov pays well for whistle blowers…..Lets get with the solution instead of the bs.
You wouldn’t need to bribe whistle blowers if you had competent or concerned management.
I might also correct “the governement pays”. The government has no money so you must mean that instead of the expectation for competent management we’ll substitute bribery using taxpayers money.
Whistleblowers rules are vague and can require extended courtroom time to resolve. Small matters slip through the cracks. Although attrocious theft to you and me, these amounts are small on the relative scale of things at the government level.
There is essentially no such thing as a small claims court for whistleblowers.
Oy vey!
It’d be interesting to know how they were caught. I’d be willing to bet pretty good money it had nothing to do with thier managers. Sure hope after they were fired nobody bothered to refill those positions – since clearly their lack of work wasn’t even noticed.
This is a very pertinent point Money Tree… and yet someone gave you two thumbs down. I’m the one that gave you a thumbs up. Who’s trolling here? Maybe a family member of the perpetrator? Wrong is wrong. Unless you have a compromised set of morals.
Two thumbs down from two other very busy APG workers most likely.
lol, so likely true.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the scrap yard or the wire-stripping machine seller called them in.
I believe that scrap metal places have some legal obligation to report scrap turned in that seems suspicious. Not certain…but seems like I read that somewhere a while back. I’d bet most turn a blind eye anyway but you might be right; rather than risk a business license some scrapyard thought an electician at APG turning in thousands of dollars worth of copper wire and on multiple occasions was suspicious. These guys must have known it too; because they used several different places to “launder” the metal.
Maybe their supervisors should be fired as well but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Its only our tax dollars so no one cares.