Posted on 04/29/2005 5:19:38 PM PDT by JMK
By Stephanie Akin Staff Writer
METHUEN -- A day after they were rushed by limousine to tell their tale of buried treasure on national television, two men were charged with stealing the money they said they found in their back yard.
Timothy Crebase, 24, of 49 Sorrento Ave. in Methuen and Barry Billcliff, 27, of 307 Hanover St., Apt. 2, in Manchester, N.H., were arrested last night after Crebase confessed they found the 1,800 antique bills, with an estimated value of more than $100,000, in a Newbury barn they were working on in early April.
Now, police are trying to locate the owner of the barn to turn the cash over to the rightful party.
"These guys are roofers," said Capt. Kris McCarthy. "They found the money on the job site. The story after that was all made up."
Police said a tip the money was taken from someone's barn came into an anonymous hot line after The Eagle-Tribune first reported the buried treasure story last Saturday. That led to a background check on the principals and the discovery that, among other things, Billcliff had been convicted in 1999 for counterfeiting cash -- a charge he dismissed as "stupid stuff."
Police then watched as the men appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America," NBC's "Today" show, Fox and CNN to recount their story, and noticed that details changed with each appearance. The Eagle-Tribune also listed the discrepancies about when the men said they found the money, how deep it was buried, why they were digging and the exact site of the backyard find.
"We determined a tremendous amount of inconsistencies," police Detective Lt. Michael Wnek said. "There were a lot of holes in their story. We became suspicious at that point."
Another call from the anonymous tipster said the money was found stuffed in rusting tin cans that fell from the barn's gutter and that Crebase, Billcliff and a third man, Matt Ingham, brought the money to the Methuen house where Crebase lived.
Police said the trio convinced Kevin Kozak, who owned the house, to agree to the story that they found the money while digging up a shrub in his backyard.
Police said they are seeking to question Kozak and Ingham about their involvement. Kozak agreed to show show up at the police station last night but failed to appear. Ingham is believed to be in Florida.
Police said Crebase and Billcliff took the money to Village Coin Shop in Plaistow, N.H., where they told the owner, Domenic Mangano, varying accounts of how they found the money they wanted him to sell.
"They were lying through their teeth to him as well," Wnek said.
Mangano said Billcliff and Crebase first walked into his coin store April 12, displaying a single $2 bill.
"I gave them a price on it," Mangano said. "They said they wanted me to check on some other notes that were out in their vehicle."
Mangano said they then went outside to their car and brought in a plastic milk crate containing "hundreds of these old, old notes in it." He described the bills as dusty.
"When I saw it, immediately I thought to myself, 'Where did they find them? Where did they get them?' That's when they told me," Mangano said.
Mangano said Crebase said the money was found in an empty barn in Newbury while they were putting up a gutter and the job involved taking down a wall. He told Mangano the barn owner said "if they found anything, it would be theirs."
Billcliff, who had left the shop for about an hour, returned and repeated the same story, Mangano said.
"They told me that they had been working in the morning, or during the day, at a barn in Newbury," the coin store owner said.
But two weeks later, on April 23, Mangano read a completely different story in The Eagle-Tribune, a story that quoted Crebase and Billcliff saying they found the buried treasure of old money in their back yard while doing yard work.
At that point, Mangano said he called Billcliff.
"I wasn't sure which story was right, so I just told him. I says, 'Barry, which story is it?' And he says, 'This is the right story," Mangano recalled. "I says, 'What do you mean this is the right story? Is the paper right, or is the one which you told me?'
"He says, 'No. What I told the paper,' he says, 'that's the right story,'" Mangano said.
Mangano said that was the end of his questioning. He then accompanied the group to New York and appeared on various national news shows talking about his opinion of the bills.
Crebase, Billcliff and their friends returned from the New York media blitz Tuesday night, and police and representatives of Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett were waiting to question them. As the day progressed, the Secret Service, which had become interested in the story when news reporters called the agency's Washington D.C., headquarters, and the Massachusetts State Police joined the investigation.
It was about 10 p.m. yesterday when police had collected enough information to arrest Billcliff and Crebase. The two were being booked about the same time technicians for the late-night "Jimmy Kimmel Live" talk show were preparing to interview the men about their find from the lawn of the house where they found the money.
This time, Crebase and Billcliff missed their chance at the spotlight. They were charged with receiving stolen property over $250 and conspiracy to commit larceny. Crebase was charged with accessory before the fact, and Billcliff was charged with accessory after the fact, the police said. The men were jailed overnight when they failed to raise $5,000 cash bail, and were arraigned this morning in Lawrence District Court.
At 1:50 a.m. today, eight officers from city and state police and a Secret Service agent searched Kozak's unlocked and unoccupied house, finding 30 old United States currency bills lying under a bed in one of the three bedrooms.
Wnek said the money was found about 20 minutes into the search and was just lying out under the bed in a pile. About half the bills were sheathed in protective plastic sleeves. They were mostly of higher denominations or bore the distinctive red serial numbers of old money.
Officers also took computer equipment, including a large hard drive, and a soil sample from the back yard near the shrub and stairs where the men first claimed they found the money. They also searched the garage and a box truck parked in the driveway.
The police said the investigation is still in progress and they are getting more information as each hour goes by.
Lead investigators on the case were Methuen police Detectives John Santoro and James Jajuga Jr., working with Secret Service Special Agents Rob Smith and Christopher Silvestro.
Associate Editor Russ Conway and staff writer Andy Kosow contributed to this report.
This story slays me! It might have worked, if they had kept their mouths shut. Wonder what Jimmy Kimmel is going to be saying about these nitwits?
Ah, what a bunch of idiots. Luckily most criminals are stupid and end up screwing themselves.
The smart thing would have been to look up the value of the bills on then internet and then pass off a few at a time to different stores. If you're asked, just say your grandfather or uncle left them to you.
Saw an interview of these guys....They sounded like losers from the start.
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