By KEN SUGIURA The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 10/15/05 Daniel Wolcott's frequent flyer miles are piling up. The Buford man, who was arrested earlier this week for allegedly stealing a $7 million charter jet and taking friends on a joy ride, apparently did more flying that night than had been thought.
Daniel Wolcott remains in the Gwinnett jail on $175,000 bond on a charge of receiving stolen property.
Law enforcement officials believe Wolcott slipped out of St. Augustine, Fla., around 3 a.m. and flew to Gwinnett's Briscoe Field — alone. Once in Gwinnett, Wolcott reportedly called friends, who met him at the airport. Wolcott and his five passengers then flew to Winder — about 15 miles from Briscoe — where he executed a touch-and-go landing before heading back to Briscoe Field, officials say.
He remains in the Gwinnett County jail and also faces a grand theft charge in Florida. He also may face federal interstate theft charges. Said FBI Special Agent Stephen Emmett, "I imagine the FAA would be looking hard at his pilot's license."
Various details emerged Friday of the alleged crime. St. Augustine airport assistant manager Bryan Cooper said that an airfield Web cam atop a 14-foot column was disabled between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. Sunday. "It was a wireless camera with a magnetic base on it, and it was on a steel column," Cooper said. "Someone shimmied up the column, an approximately 14-foot column, and took the camera.""My homeboy chartered this jet," said Baker, who added that it was his first flight. "He chartered us a jet and we flew."
Police believe otherwise. "It technically was a chartered plane," said Gwinnett police spokesman Darren Moloney. "Just not by Wolcott." James Coffey said that Wolcott made the decision to cut the trip to Winder short and land the plane back at Briscoe when only 500 pounds of fuel — about 80 gallons — remained. Moloney said the amount of gasoline remaining when it was found Monday was "dangerously low." Wolcott apparently did not give any indication that there was anything unusual taking place. "None of the boys seemed to think he was acting strangely," James Coffey said. Monday and Tuesday, when news of the alleged theft began to spread, the five — all from Lawrenceville — went to the police. Meanwhile, Wolcott went back to work. St. Johns Sheriff's Office spokesman Kevin Kelshaw said that Wolcott originally flew down to St. Augustine as a co-pilot on a business flight the previous Thursday. Michael Slingluff, president of Aero Sport , which provides aviation services at the St. Augustine airport, said that Wolcott and the pilot flew for a company called Medical Holdings. The day after the alleged theft, Wolcott took a commercial flight to Jacksonville, took a cab to nearby St. Augustine, checked out of his hotel and flew back on the Medical Holdings plane, Kelshaw said.
He turned himself in to Gwinnett police Wednesday morning, a day after a warrant for his arrest was issued. He was charged with receiving stolen property, a felony, and five counts of reckless conduct. As of Friday, he was still in jail on $175,000 bond. That Wolcott's five friends, who were not charged because they did not know it was a stolen plane, apparently walked onto the Briscoe Field tarmac without being stopped, loitered around the aircraft, boarded a plane, took off and landed with no one knowing represents a security breach that airport manager Matt Smith acknowledged.
"I'm not going to sit here and tell you it's a fortress because it's not," Smith said. "That's something we're trying to address." Security weaknesses have been identified. "We need to go and identify a source of funding, which is really what it comes down to," he said. The question remains: What possessed Wolcott to allegedly attempt such a risky venture? From the Gwinnett jail, Wolcott declined an interview request. "That's the $64,000 question," said St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar. "Why do that? Why take a plane and leave, and then only to come back to same area to fly another plane out? It's kind of a bizarre tale."
School Reports Suspicious Activity; Parents Weren't Notified (NC - 10/14/05)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Parents are upset that they are just now learning about suspicious activity that happened two weeks ago outside Eastover Elementary School. Police said young kids were being photographed and others were being approached.
According to police, the incidents happened during the first week of school. The kids were on the playground at Eastover Elementary when a man came from behind the bushes and called a little boy toward him, police said. Police said a teacher stopped the child and the man drove off in an ice cream truck.
The teacher said she immediately told her principal.....
Police arrested Tomer Messinger, a 22-year-old Israeli citizen. Authorities have started deportation proceedings, but Messinger is out on bond until his next hearing.
Police Searching For Suspicious Man Loitering At Colleges (VT - 10/14/05)
Police are investigating complaints of a suspicious man loitering at several Vermont colleges. One complaint was of a man in the women's showers at the University of Vermont.
The culprit was described as a white man with short brown hair and scruffy facial hair, wearing black sweats and a white T-shirt.
A similar description was given for a man who reportedly was acting suspiciously toward a woman at the Middlebury College library. Anyone with information about these or other similar incidents is asked to call the Vermont State Police barracks in Middlesex at (802) 229-9191.
W.Va. Officials Searching for Missing Plane (W. VA - 10/14/05)
October 14, 2005, 9:26 PM LOGAN, W.Va. (AP) -- Emergency crews searched a mountainous area near Logan County's airport Friday after air traffic controllers lost contact with a single-engine plane preparing to land...
You sure hit the trail with a bang, this morning.
Thank you for your reports, they are going to give me nightmares.
Someone needs to have a thread for the reports on schools only......there are too many of them. With my computer, I cannot go to the big news sites, so I can't collect them.
We have known that the schools were in danger for several years. An Israel passport, does not mean that he is not a
Hamas / Palestian man, the Hamas has us on the planning board and it is ok to correct me if I have the wrong name..
That stolen Jet is getting real interesting, and amazing.
What a shame we won't get all the truth out of it, it is time now to admit that he delivered something, before using the 5 guys for a cover up.
If the flu won't work on one medicine, is that because it has mutated one of the times that they are saying it will?
I do hope the plane landed in a field and didn't crash, how sad to be so close to landing and then to loose it.
Try to have a good day.
You will want to read 2910, it has an update on the stolen Jet, it is getting wild.......
Note the 2 schools, that have had incidents also in the post that All4one has found this morning.
Could Wolcott be a pedophile trying to impress some young men?
Great set of links all4one.
THANKS.
Big thanks for the update, All4one. I would like to know more about the kind of folks Daniel Wolcott befriends.