WHAT A HEEL: Druggie Steals From School, Veteran’s Charity
Christopher Bess, 32, of Chico, CA, pleaded no contest to a charge of receiving stolen property for stealing 46 solar panels valued at nearly $50,000 from the roof of Little Chico Creek School to buy drugs, reports the Chico (CA) Enterprise-Record:
He admitted having a prior "strike" on his record relating to a 1999 assault conviction, which increases his maximum potential sentence to seven years in prison.
He was already awaiting sentencing on a drug charge at the time of the plea bargain.
Prosecutors agreed to dismiss six additional stolen-property counts against Bess related to other items recovered with some of the missing solar panels from a Chico storage shed in March. …
Bess was being held on the drug charge in the Butte County Jail when he was recorded placing a telephone call to a man in Nevada and telling him to "empty out" the Highway 32 storage sheds, where slightly less than half of the solar panels were later recovered by police.
In the storage units, which were being rented under the name of Bess' girlfriend, were bicycles stolen from Chico State University and lawn-care equipment taken from a Nord Avenue apartment, according to Chico police reports.
Also recovered was miscellaneous property, much of it cold-weather gear, stolen in February from Caring Veterans, Inc. on Rio Lindo Avenue, a non-profit group in Chico that assists military veterans.
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