Utah: Very Heavy Lifting

Stealing three F-16 jet-fighter engines and whisking them out of a military air base is no easy feat. The $2 million Pratt & Whitney machines are 17 ft. long and weigh more than 3,000 lbs. each. But two weeks ago, a military policeman at Utah’s Hill Air Force Base towed the mighty machines through an unguarded gate and flogged them to a dealer in military surplus.

Or so he thought. Senior Airman Danny Joe Stroud and his alleged accomplice, Airman 1st Class Brian David Roth, hadn’t reckoned on Operation Punchout, a sting that ran a phony purchasing company set up by the FBI and military investigators to buy hot military gear. Along with the pricey jet engines, the sting netted a “warehouseful” of items, from canteens to jet instrumentation. Stroud, his wife Kimberly and Roth were charged with stealing the engines. They pleaded not guilty. Twelve others have also been indicted on related charges. “Many of the participants are military policemen, and we find that especially disturbing,” commented U.S. Attorney Dee Benson.