Ex-Marine gets probation for thefts from Pa. base

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - June 28, 2012 (WPVI) -- A former Marine sergeant will spend five years on probation for stealing equipment from a military base near Philadelphia.

Federal authorities say 30-year-old Christopher Cook, of Lakehurst, N.J., will serve eight months of his probation at a community confinement center.

Prosecutors say Cook stole more than 60,000 pounds of aluminum helicopter landing pads and other metal objects from the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Willow Grove.

They say he sold the supplies to a local scrap-metal dealer for nearly $51,000, which he used to pay for personal expenses. The thefts occurred between August 2010 and February 2011.

Cook was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Philadelphia for theft and destruction of U.S. government property.

He had been assigned to a Marine unit headquartered at Willow Grove.

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theft, u.s. marine corps, pennsylvania, local/state

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