DuBOIS-A former plant manager charged with stealing over $40,000 worth of materials waived his right to a preliminary hearing Friday during centralized court.
Patrick Francis Tekely, 58, Ramey, is charged with theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property. His bail was set at $10,000, unsecured.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, in November the president of Pace Precision Metals, Inc. in Sandy Township reported that someone had removed approximately 1,600 pounds of chrome copper valued at $18,032 that had been stored in the main factory building. In addition, there was a prior theft believed to be by an employee of five rolls of titanium which had been stored in the main factory building. Only four employees including Tekely knew the titanium was there.
When police spoke with GC Scrap Metals in Osceola Mills and Novey Recycling in Clearfield they learned Tekely had sold them inconel, copper, aluminum and titanium. Some of the items were still on site and were identified as being those taken from Pace Precision.
Another employee at Pace Precision told police that he helped Tekely load material into his vehicle on two occasions.
Police found that Tekely was responsible for the theft of copper valued at $18,032, coils of titanium valued at $14,010, inconel material valued at $8,704.28, aluminum bars valued at $816 and stainless worth $453.40.
When Tekely’s desk was cleaned out, a large quantity of scratch off lottery tickets were found. Tekely, who had been employed since 2005, was known to gamble, especially with the lottery. The president of the company stated that Tekely’s demeanor at work had changed as well as his productivity and that he may have a gambling problem.
