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Money For Nothing

“Hundreds of thousands of dollars were wasted on purchasing ammunition that was not needed at a time when the city is in dire straits,” said Bruce Rubenstein of the Hartford, Conn., audit commission, reporting the results of an audit of the police department’s shooting range. The audit charges the range administrator, Officer Louis Crabtree, circumvented the department’s $115,000 annual budget and purchased hundreds of thousands of rounds of extra ammo. According to the audit, Crabtree purchased 487,000 rounds per year for six years, despite a requirement for no more than 240,000 rounds per year, and the department using about 180,000 rounds per year, mostly for training. And when there wasn’t enough money to cover his buys, Crabtree allegedly bought the rounds on credit against the next year’s budget, leaving a balance of $186,000 when the audit happened. Worse, Crabtree says he doesn’t know where all that extra ammunition is. The department is working to clean up the mess. “Everything has been corrected, everything that comes in and out has been bar-coded and is tracked,” said Deputy Chief Brian Foley. Crabtree has retired and an internal inspection will decide if there needs to be a criminal investigation. (MS/Hartford Courant) ...Yeah, that might be worth a shot.
Original Publication Date: 24 May 2015
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 21.

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