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Steven Kucan, 47, of Wood Ridge, was arrested by agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and ICE on charges of theft of government property. He had been suspended since February, when investigators found a stache of U.S. booty in his home.
Kucan “regularly” stole ICE property beginning in December 2004 while supervising an administrative group at ICE’s offices in New York, U.S. Attorney Paul S. Fishman said. He was responsible for obtaining, storing and controlling ICE equipment, the government said.
Employees reported seeing saw Kucan wheel ICE property out of the offices on carts, including one who saw him visit the offices to remove property on a Saturday.
They also said he had an eBay account in the name of a relative through which he sold roughly $37,000 worth of ICE property – including printer cartridges, film, batteries, camera lenses, combat lights for ICE’s M-4 rifles, and an immersion suit designed to prevent hypothermia in cold water.
Armed with a warrant, agents search Kucan’s home, where they reported find $40,000 worth of stolen computers, printers, keyboards, police batons, flashlights, work gloves, safety glasses, lifejackets, helmets, handcuffs, gun holsters, camera lenses, emergency lights and sirens, and two-way radio systems.
Fishman credited special agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and the government Office of Professional Responsibility with making the case, which is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bradley A. Harsch of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Special Prosecutions Division in Newark.
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