West Point Reports Theft Of Radio Equipment Worth $400K – Reward
October 16, 2008 by national
Filed under Incident Reports
Army investigators are offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to whoever stole more than $400,000 worth of equipment from a warehouse at West Point.
According to the Army Criminal Investigation Command, the crime occurred between 5 p.m. Sept. 16 and 7 a.m. Sept. 17 in a storage facility near Washington Gate.
The perimeter fence around the warehouse was cut, CID reports said, and the “door to the building, although secured with lock and key, was easy to open with a strenuous pull.”
The stolen goods included 330 Motorola Portable Astro Digital XTS 5000 radios, worth $1,142 each, and about 600 Ni-Cad batteries worth $87 each.
The most interoperable radio of its class, the Motorola XTS 5000 radio is an incredibly versatile Public Safety portable designed for mission-critical APCO Project 25 users. APCO Project 25 is a set of industry standards for digital mobile radio designed primarily for public safety agencies.
Investigators publicized the theft and introduced the reward this week. Anyone with information is asked to call Special Agent Jared Kalmes at 938-7548.
So, three radios that would be invaluable to terrorist who were say, trying to attack Indian Point, are stolen from West Point in the middle of the night from a poorly defended and improperly secured building…value well over $400,000. Yet, trying to get information on the CHEAP, they offer a paltry $5,000 reward which is probably tied to arrest and conviction…which often times does not happen. I would think Jared Kalmes is smart enough to realize it will take a reward worth more than one percent of the value to get people to loosen their lips. Also wondering here what action is being taken against higher ups at West Point for treating such sensitive equipment in such a cavalier way? Sounds like my Single Malt Scotch has better security than these radios had.
Yo, Why didn’t they have an alarm system, it could be an inside job, someone new what was in the storage facility. Watch airports
for shipping, or ads on selling on internet, it could be terroist involved.
Sure would have been VERY smart to include an area code with the contact phone number. I have forwarded far and wide to radio folks … Hams. We are watching. Priority now for everyone is to ’stick your finger in the dike’ and let the embarassed ones at the Point fix the ‘dike’. pmw