Fort Wayne, IN - 22 Yr. Old Steals Police Car From City Garage - Uses Police Car to Steal Police Computers, Cameras, and Radios
Jail talk deepens inmate's troubles
Alleged tales of using stolen city police car lead to 2 theft charges
The Journal Gazette
A Fort Wayne man allegedly told a fellow inmate at the Whitley County Jail
that he used a stolen Fort Wayne police car to transport computers, police
radios and other equipment that he and another man had taken out of other police
cars.
Adham A. El-Khatib, 22, of the 2800 block of South Harrison Street, was charged
Friday with one count of auto theft and one count of theft. According to court
documents, police claim El-Khatib and the other man stole more than $62,000 in
city property. No one else has been charged in the thefts.
El-Khatib had not been booked into the Allen County Lockup by Friday afternoon.
Police said they noticed on Dec. 3 that several Fort Wayne squad cars had
been broken into at the City Garage compound and their electronic equipment
removed, court documents said.
Police first got in touch with El-Khatib in April after he sent them a letter
from the Whitley County Jail about his concern that his relatives would sell his
car while he was in jail.
Police said they were aware of El-Khatib’s history of damaging police vehicles
and stealing things out of them and they agreed to talk to him at the jail about
his concerns if he would talk to them about the December thefts.
During an interview, police told El-Khatib that they knew he had a rented
storage unit, and they asked him whether there was any Fort Wayne Police
Department property being kept there, court documents said.
El-Khatib ended the interview, police said.
Another inmate at the jail had contacted police a day before El-Khatib sent
officers the letter and told them that El-Khatib had talked about breaking into
three different police cars and removing the center consoles, which held
computers, cameras and radios, court documents said.
El-Khatib had also told his fellow inmate that he and another man had used
another patrol car to transport the items to the storage space and then took the
console out of that car too, police said.