DUBOIS – Charges have been filed against an employee accused of removing a furnace from the property of the DuBois School District.
Kevin Lee Caine, 46, of DuBois, was charged with misdemeanor counts of theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property by the DuBois Area School Police on Oct. 27.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, the assistant superintendent noticed the furnace was missing from the Highland School on Oct. 21 and requested an investigation.
An officer determined the furnace was purchased for the MIS Department’s new office plan at the district’s Old Maintenance Building in December of 2014.
The custodian confirmed the furnace had been stored there since early 2016. He stated that it had been in a locked storage area, but he noticed it was missing on Oct. 17 and reported it to his supervisor, Nate Kimberling. It was new and still in an unopened box, he said.
Kimberling advised the other maintenance workers that the furnace was missing and needed to be located. About two hours later, Caine approached him saying that he was the one who originally moved it from the Old Maintenance Building and placed it at the Highland School in the locked storage area.
He also stated that he moved it to the “dry storage at the stadium.” Even after a thorough search, the furnace was not found there.
On Oct. 21 Caine told Kimberling that he took the furnace without authorization to the Highland School and hooked it up in the loft. He led Kimberling and the officer to an older furnace that was a different model with a different serial number than the missing furnace.
A broader search was made of all the school buildings but the furnace could not be found.
On Oct. 25 a custodian was cleaning EJ Mansell Stadium when she encountered Caine outside the main doors near Hoover Avenue. The door had been propped open. He told her he was there to check on the furnace of the DuBois Food Pantry to see if it was working.
Later that day, Caine contacted Kimberling claiming it was in the old filter room at the stadium. This time when the area near the dry food storage area of the food pantry was checked, they found the furnace.
It was not in a box. It clearly had a dent, scratches and other marks, the complaint said. This room had been searched on Oct. 21 and the furnace was not there at that time.
When Caine was interviewed, he said he moved the furnace from the Highland School to the loft and then later took it over to the filter room at the stadium. Once he was confronted by the facts, he admitted that he had taken the new furnace to his father’s residence where he hooked it up as his heat source on Oct. 15.
After he was first questioned about the furnace, Caine moved it into the locked filter room, he told police.
Caine’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 2 at 10 a.m. during centralized court at District Judge Patrick Ford’s office.