Crime & Safety
Transfer Station Employee Arraigned for Second Degree Larceny
Philip Hunt, an employee at the Guilford-Madison transfer station, was recently arraigned in court on charges of larceny in the 2nd degree. Details from court documents reveal investigations into the case began Jan. 4 and involved video surveillance.
Philip Hunt, 41, of 1011 Route 80, Guilford, was recently charged with larceny in the second degree for allegedly pocketing cash on the job. He was arraigned at the State of Connecticut Superior Court in New Haven on April 29.
Hunt was granted a continuance, currently set for May 7, according to the court clerk’s office. That same day, fellow employee Frank Cole, who faces identical charges, will have his day in court.
According to court documents, Detective Frederick Hill, a member of the Guilford Police Department who was one of the arresting officers, presented the ‘facts and circumstances’ of the case in an affidavit. This affidavit appears in the Arrest Warrant Application provided to Guilford Patch by the Court's Clerks Office. The following details of this case were provided by that court document.
An April 29 press conference revealed that investigations into employees at the station had begun ‘several months ago,’ and court documents reveal that they began in January. Detective Hill stated in an undersigned affidavit that “On 1/4/2013 the Guilford Police Detective Unit began an investigation of employees at the Madison-Guilford, #1900 Boston Post Road in Guilford...”
Hill also stated in the affidavit “this investigation was initiated after receiving information provided by a concerned citizen that town funds were being stolen by employees at the Transfer station.”
After this tip, the Guilford Police Detective Sergeant Provencher and Sergeant Bernier met with the Director of Finance for Guilford, Sheila Villano, who was aware of the complaint, Hill stated in the documents.
The court documents reveal there are three full time employees, Cole and Hunt among them, and several part time employees that “handle the recycling portion of the transfer station and a small amount of cash that is forwarded to the full time employees.” The documents state that Frank Cole, who faces the same 2nd degree charges as Hunt, “is the primary employee that handles the cash, checks and Transfer Station deposits.”
According to Detective Hill’s Affidavit, Guilford Police Detectives “formulated a plan to conduct surveillance of the Transfer station for the purpose of observing the number of vehicles that dump trash at the Transfer Station and are subject for dumping fees.” According to Hill, that plan was initiated on January 28.
The Arrest Warrant Application goes on to say that on the following dates, the Guilford Police Detectives “conducted experior surveillance on the following dates:”
- Jan. 28
- Jan. 29
- Jan. 31
- Feb. 1
- Feb. 2
- Feb. 4
- Feb. 5
- Feb. 7
- Feb. 22
- Feb. 23
- April 15
- April 16
- April 18
- April 19
- April 20
The following results revealed that “on all Transfer Station deposits reviewed, several wight tickets, by sequential number order, were found to be missing and the number of reported weighed and non-weighed vehicles was lower than the number of vehicles observed by detectives conducting surveillance,” according to Hill’s affidavit.
The affidavit later stated that af of April 24, deposits for the time periods of the aforementioned surveillance periods for the non-weighed vehicle or single ticket total was $7,639. "Exterior surveillance conducted by Detectives during this same time period determined the minimum non-weighed vehicle total should have been $11,809," the affidavit stated. This comes to a minimum of $4,170 was found to be missing, not taking into account the weighed vehicles for which missing tickets were discovered.
In addition, Hill states that on Feb. 19, the "Connecticut State Police provided and installed surveillance equipment in the office of the Transfer Station... In an effort to video record the identity of the person/s handling town funds."
The affidavit then reveals the following:
This surveillance equipment included a camera that was capable of recording video only and provided a view of a portion of the interior of the Transfer Station office including the cash register as well as the office checkout counter and the scale monitoring equipment.
The court document states that interior video recording was stopped on March 2 due to a structure fire at the Transfer Station that resulted in the removal of that equipment. Repairs were completed on April 13, and "two surveillance cameras with a recording unit were placed into the main office of the Transfer Station..."
Sr. Account Specialist for the Town of Guilford Finance Department, Darlene Minore, provided the affiant that stated that on April 10 "Comcast was contracted to install an internet connection line into the Transfer Station office for the purpose of installing credit card machines.
On April 12, after the technician was at the Station, Minore states that Frank Cole contacted her and related that he "suspected that something was going on," and he thought "someone was installing cameras to watch who was putting stuff in the hopper."
Minore said that she responded to Cole by "saying she had no knowledge of that happening at that time," according to the Warrant.
According to the warrant, video surveillance of the interior of the Station were reviewed by Guilford Police Detectives and included the following video images of employee Philip Hunt:
- Hunt is seen on 4/19/13 and 4/20/13 taking money from the cash register drawer and walking into the bathroom and returning empty handed
- Hunt is seen on 4/18/13 and 4/19/13 crumpling up weight tickets (receipts) which he dumps in the trash compactor, after the gates are closed for the day, and then activating the trash compactor
- Hunt is seen with Frank Cole, and on another occasion... inspecting the newly installed Comcast cable, which Hunt locates the end of the cable, possibly to see if he cable is connected to anything.
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