LOGISTICS SUPPORT AREA ANACONDA, BALAD, Iraq, March 2, 2005 — Over the past month, the military police here have responded to 54 larcenies, including burglaries, theft of government and private property, postal theft and shoplifting. "Larceny is probably the majority of our cases," said U.S. Army Spc. Daniel Krupka, 939th Military Police Detachment (Law and Order).
Two of the most recent incidents involved third country nationals who were caught with unauthorized items from alcohol to digital cameras to military issued equipment. We got a tip that the [Army and Air Force Exchange Service] employees had alcohol in their possession, so we went over there and found all kinds of stuff," said Investigator Shane Stephens, 939th MP Detachment.
The suspects were adamant that soldiers gave them the items, but much of it had clearly been stolen, Stephens said. One suspect was in possession of 11 brand new military issue knives worth $144 each. Others had expensive digital cameras, SAPI (body armor) plates, rucksacks, load bearing equipment and desert camouflage uniforms.
In the second incident, two men were caught by Army and Air Force Exchange Service loss prevention attempting to steal two packages of underwear. When they were questioned, loss prevention personnel found an additional four packages, said Capt. Gary Blagburn, 939th MP Detachment operations officer. {snip}In both cases, the individuals were fired by their companies and flown out of theater. "Usually, when they're caught, they're back home in one to two days," Blagburn said. |