Thomas Wessells, a former executive with the Witmer Public Safety Group was arrested Monday on charges of allegedly stealing over $195,000 worth of equipment from one of the U.S.’s most successful suppliers of first-responder equipment. He then allegedly went on to sell it on eBay for personal gain.

Wessells, who surrendered to County Detectives with his two attorneys, was charged with multiple counts of theft, dealing in unlawful proceeds, receiving stolen property, as well as criminal use of a communications facility.

County District Attorney, Thomas Hogan, whose office was in charge of the investigation, released a statement which details that officials of WPSG discovered the thefts after Wessells was let go from his position as Director of Order Fulfillment for viewing inappropriate pornographic content on a company computer and violating the strict sexual harassment policy put in place by the company.

The thefts were discovered when an IT employee of the company found a Yahoo.com shortcut that logged him into an email account apparently set up by Wessells expressly for the purpose of selling stolen items on eBay.

Further, more detailed examination, then showed that Wessells had stolen over $195,000 worth of products from the company, distributed through over 2,000 eBay sales. Tax returns seized from the defendant also indicated that he failed to list any of these sales as legitimate income.

“It always comes as a shock to find out that one of your own employees has been stealing from you,” noted Hogan in the press release. “Businesses know how to protect themselves from armed robbers, burglars, hackers, and other outside threats. However, a business is often most vulnerable to fraud conducted by a trusted insider like the defendant here.”

Hogan continued on to say that “WPSG is a valued local company, particularly for our police and firefighters. The fact that one of the company’s trusted employees was stealing from the company is disturbing for the entire first responder community.”

Wessells, 55, was released on the day of his arraignment after fronting the required $25,000 bond, with the preliminary hearing scheduled for February 4th next year.