A former civilian contractor admitted Tuesday that he stole thousands of dollars worth of property from the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base.
James Dean Salmon, 47, is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 16 in federal court in San Diego.
Salmon, of Escondido, admitted in his plea that he exploited his position as a civilian contractor to cause unnecessary purchases of equipment. In doing so, Salmon would falsely represent functioning equipment as broken, or repairable equipment as unrepairable.
When new equipment would arrive, Salmon would then falsely claim to have installed it — while, in fact, he would steal the new items for his own personal use, prosecutors said.
From December 2007 through August 2011, Salmon used the scheme to steal a total of $27,362 worth of government equipment, much of it recovered from inside his residence when a search warrant was served, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
