A public school employee faces felony charges after video cameras allegedly caught him stripping copper from damaged air conditioners, according to court records published Friday.
On Jan. 15, a maintenance worker at Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School in St. Thomas summoned the school’s principal when they found metal debris that might injure students, according to court records. When the principal arrived, they found a security camera in the area had been broken.
The principal and maintenance worker reviewed the camera’s final footage to figure out how the camera was damaged. It allegedly showed school maintenance worker Benito Dawson II pulling copper from air conditioning units Jan. 3 and then breaking the camera, according to officers from the Virgin Islands Police Department.
Dawson, a maintenance worker at several schools in the territory, allegedly left the discarded pieces of air conditioning units after pulling out their copper elements for later resale at the Bovoni recycling facility, according to court records.
Dawson was not supposed to be on campus that day and other employees allegedly saw him removing the copper.
Police interviewed Dawson Thursday. He allegedly acknowledged ripping the copper from the air conditioning machines without permission, according to charging documents.
Dawson was charged with destruction of school property, embezzlement of property by an employee, third-degree burglary, and petit larceny.
His advice of rights hearing was Friday and he is scheduled to be arraigned on the two felony and two major misdemeanor charges March 13.
