A security guard was charged with looting a building he was supposed to be protecting.
Nicholas Desisto, a 21-year-old Highland Mills resident, had been working for a security firm that was hired to watch the property at NYMA.
On June 15, the academy contacted the Town of Cornwall Police to report a burglary that had occurred over the weekend. Someone had broken into a maintenance building, and had taken a generator and power tools worth $6,000.
Police Officer Mike Thompson began an investigation immediately, and obtained a warrant to search Mr. Desisto’s residence on Pine Hill Road in Highland Mills. Mr. Desisto had worked the entire weekend, and reported that he hadn’t seen anything suspicious.
On Friday, June 19 the Town of Cornwall and Town of Woodbury Police conducted the search together. They found a Generac Generator, a push-behind leaf blower, empty gasoline cans, and a pair of bolt cutters with the words “commandant’s office” etched on the handle.
Mr. Desisto was charged with burglary and grand larceny, both class D felonies. He was arraigned before Justice Frank Navarra, and remanded to Orange County Jail with bail set at $10,000.
