HEADLINE: EMPLOYEE CHARGED WITH THEFT 

A civilian Topeka Police Department employee was charged Thursday with the theft last year of money from the police property room, authorities said.  A Shawnee County Jail official said Sterling Sproul, 36, 618 S.E. 42nd St., was booked into jail on an outstanding Shawnee County warrant Thursday night. He was being held on a $5,000 bond. 

District Attorney Joan Hamilton said the warrant contains a charge she filed against Sproul on Thursday accusing him of the theft of property valued at more than $500 but less than $25,000. Police Lt. John Sidwell said the police department on Thursday had placed Sproul on administrative leave with the intent to terminate his employment.

"This is based on information we received from the KBI (Kansas Bureau of Investigation) in reference to missing money in the property room," Sidwell said. Police in December learned that nearly $6,500 in cash was missing from the department's property room.

Police also discovered that some pieces of evidence had been destroyed before the related cases had been resolved. They said they determined that evidence inadvertently had been marked for destruction when an employee failed to follow correct computer operating procedures while generating a list of unneeded evidence.

Police Chief Dean Forster said in February that his department still hadn't been able to trace the missing cash and had asked the KBI to help with the investigation.

Forster said he was disappointed that his department's investigation hadn't turned up the money and said his main reason for seeking KBI assistance was to ensure his department had "covered all the bases" and "left no loose ends." He ordered department employees to cooperate fully with the KBI and said that agency's investigators would have "unlimited access."

Sidwell said the KBI investigation turned up information that led authorities to suspect Sproul of the theft.  "We appreciate the assistance of the KBI," Sidwell said.

Authorities weren't saying Thursday how they had linked Sproul to the theft or whether he had been among roughly 40 people who worked in the evidence room. Hamilton said further details about the KBI probe would be revealed when she and KBI officials have a joint news conference tentatively scheduled for 1 p.m. today. 

HEADLINE: Baumgart guilty of theft 

DATELINE: GREAT FALLS 

A jury found former Cascade County Sheriff's Deputy Sgt. Debbie Baumgart guilty of two counts of felony theft.   Baumgart, 44, was found guilty on theft from a local government receiving federal funds and theft of government property.  She was a 24-year veteran of the office and its highest-ranking woman ever. 

Each felony is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.  She was arrested last March for stealing more than $15,000 in cash from the jail's evidence room over a two-year span. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy will sentence Baumgart Dec. 12.  She is free on her own recognizance. 

HEADLINE: Money missing from police evidence room 

DATELINE: RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. 

The Arkansas State Police have been asked to investigate the disappearance of $785 from the Russellville police evidence room.  Police Chief Jim Wade said the money turned up missing in an audit of the room. He did not speculate about how the money disappeared. 

"There's absolutely endless possibilities as to what happened with the money," Wade said recently. "But we're charged with the responsibility of keeping track of those things, so this is a big deal to us." 

The missing money was evidence in a theft case. It originally was recovered by Russellville police, as part of $6,000 stolen from C&M Vending last year.  Chance W. Byers, 26, of Russellville later pleaded guilty to taking the money, most of which he used to purchase Christmas presents for family members, according to police. 

At the time he was arrested, $785 in cash was located, along with the gifts Byers purchased with the stolen money, according to prosecutors and police.  After Billy Yarbrough of C&M Vending received a court order for the money and sent an employee to retrieve it from the evidence room, he was told the money was missing.  Meanwhile, the Russellville City Council voted to use public funds to refund Yarbrough's missing money. 

The items Byers purchased were turned over to a drug task force and auctioned off, with the proceeds going to Yarbrough, according to prosecutors.  The money and gifts had been kept in the old Russellville Police Department until April, when jail trusties were used to move the evidence into the new Russellville Police Department, police said. Street department employees, who now occupy the old police headquarters, also had access to the room during the transition. 
In addition, the transition to the new department came at a time when the department's evidence technician was out of town on military leave. Instead of having her oversee the move, the exchange of the evidence fell to other officers and Wade, police said. 

HEADLINE: LOST RING HAS WOMAN RUNNING IN CIRCLES; SON'S GOOD DEED LEADS TO THE DISCOVERY THAT BUREAUCRACY HAS THE FIRST CLAIM. 

When Bonnie Wurster's 11-year-old son, Derek, found a diamond ring last year on the floor of J.C. Penney in Woodfield Shopping Center, she thought she would teach him a lesson about good citizenship. Wurster took the ring--well-worn with several diamonds in a gold band--to store security. She explained to her son that the ring would be theirs only if the real owner could not be found.   Nine months later, Wurster, 39, of Hoffman Estates, said she has had a lesson of her own--in legal bureaucracy.

The owner has not come forward. The ring, which hasn't been appraised but which Wurster believes is worth at least $2,000, was turned over to Schaumburg police. It would be auctioned unless Wurster took legal action, she was told. The process has proven more difficult and confusing than she thought.

"A lot of people couldn't tell me what I needed to do," she said. "In this day and age, not a lot of people are very honest, and people don't know what to do when someone is."

In June, Wurster filed a "Petition for Lost Property Turnover" in Cook County Chancery Court in Chicago, which oversees cases where monetary damages are not requested. The filing fee was $220. She has spent about $100 on other fees, parking and incidentals, she said.

"So they're giving me instructions: You have to fill out this piece of paper and notify [the village]," Wurster said. "Then you fill out this piece of paper and notify the court. It's just all the details." What started out a simple lesson for her son has turned into a "twisted" process, she said. But that is how the law is set up, officials say.

"A lot of people think if they find something it's automatically theirs," said Robin Aylor, who acts as the property and evidence custodian for the Schaumburg Police Department. "It's not quite that simple. There are procedures and statutes in place for that."

State law allows police to auction items after six months if no owner comes forward or can be found. Police keep the proceeds. Those who hope to keep items they find, or prevent them from being auctioned, must turn to the Illinois Estrays and Lost Property Act.

The act requires a person who finds a piece of property worth more than $100 to file an affidavit in Cook County Circuit Court stating where and when the item was found and that the owner is unknown. The court then enters an order stating the value and gives a copy of the order to the county clerk.

The clerk must then publish a notice for three weeks in a daily newspaper. If the owner does not claim the property within one year of the advertisement, it is turned over to the finder.
The clerk has not yet run an advertisement concerning the lost ring, according to a court spokeswoman. When one does run, it will be printed in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, a newspaper read primarily by attorneys. In 1999, 183 estray cases were filed, court records show. So far this year, 106 cases have been filed.

A DuPage County judge ruled last month that a woman who bought a diamond bracelet at a Wheaton Police Department auction must return it to the teenage girl who found it and turned it in to police. Although the girl, whose father is a lawyer, had filed court documents under the estrays act in hopes of keeping the bracelet, the police auctioned it. Appraised at $8,600, it sold for $39.50.

Schaumburg officials have no desire to stand in the way of Wurster claiming the ring--provided she completes the paperwork, said Rita Elsner, assistant village attorney. "If the judge tells us to turn it over to her, great. We'll do that," Elsner said. "It's not ours. We have no vested interest in it."

Elsner, who has worked for the village for 10 years, said this is the first case she has seen in which someone has gone to court to claim property that was found. "This is definitely uncommon. Most people bring something in and then forget about it," said Aylor, the property custodian.

The Police Department receives hundreds of lost items such as bicycles, cell phones and laptop computers turned in each year by people who hope the rightful owner can be found, Aylor said.
"We reunite quite a few people with their things, and they are always so thankful that there are people out there who turn them in," Aylor said. Wurster said her son found the ring near the jewelry counter. "It was laying right out there on the carpet," she said. The owner "probably took it off and put it in their pocket, trying something on, and didn't realize it had fallen on the floor."

She believes the best result would be for the real owner to come forward and claim the ring. She lost her high school class ring 15 years ago and knows the feeling of loss. "It looked like an older ring," Wurster said. "That's why I thought it probably has a lot of sentimental value. ... I just know that the person who lost it probably would like it." 

HEADLINE: FORMER POLICE LIEUTENANT ADMITS STEALINGEVIDENCE 

A former Somerville police lieutenant in charge of the department's evidence room has pleaded guilty to taking cash and a watch from the room.  Vincent Metzler, 48, who was fired in the spring, pleaded guilty to theft of property, a third-degree offense, said Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne J. Forrest.   Metzler admitted taking $ 289 in cash and a Tag Heuer watch valued at $ 495 in February. 

 Officials began investigating the theft in late April. The investigation began after Metzler learned that the Prosecutor's Office was conducting an audit of the evidence room and asked another police officer to return the cash and watch for him, suggesting he had inadvertently kept both. 
The other officer informed officials of the attempt, and a further investigation of Metzler began, the prosecutor said. He was fired April 18 after admitting he filed a false police report.   Metzler, who entered his plea before Superior Court Judge Victor Ashrafi, faces probation and a fine.