Army Post Road

     The following article was published on the Des Moines Register’s website today.

Police: Teens had White House radios
2nd-degree theft charges for 2 boys in Bettendorf

By JEFF ECKHOFF
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

August 12, 2006

Two teenage boys were charged with second-degree theft after Bettendorf police found them in possession of radios and other equipment reported missing from a White House agency.

Matthew Bradshaw, 13, and Angel Luis Reyes III, 14, both of Bettendorf, were arrested July 30 when police discovered them with communications equipment that belonged to the White House Communications Agency.

The equipment, described by the Associated Press as three radios and more than a half-dozen “earpiece/wrist microphone combinations,” apparently was reported missing less than a week before a July 17 visit to Bettendorf by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Officials said the radios couldn’t be operated without a special code. No White House or Secret Service officials would comment, however, about how the radios disappeared in the first place.

Bettendorf police did not return multiple telephone calls from a reporter Friday.

Pat Hendrickson, juvenile court officer for Scott County, said the boys were apprehended without incident.

“I think they were just walking down the street and the officers saw them with what they knew to be expensive radios,” Hendrickson said. “They then were found to be stolen.”

Reyes’ mother did not respond to a phone call requesting comment. Bradshaw’s mother could not be reached.

Scott County court documents show Bradshaw told authorities that he found two of the radios and their earpiece/wrist accessories, according to the Associated Press. Another radio and seven earpiece/microphone attachments were found in Reyes’ bedroom on the same day.

Both teens have previous juvenile arrests, including assault and fifth-degree theft for Reyes and assault and third-degree burglary for Bradshaw.

Second-degree theft, which applies when the stolen merchandise is valued at between $1,000 and $10,000, is punishable by up to five years in prison.

     The Secret Service can’t stop a pair of teenagers from stealing a bunch of their radios????