Posted on 04/30/2005 4:34:26 AM PDT by billorites
From the beginning, the story sounded too good to be true. But four men probably would have gotten away with it, police said, had they just kept quiet.
Instead, Timothy A. Crebase, Barry J. Billcliff and Kevin Kozak went on a whirlwind publicity tour, telling CNN, the ``Today'' show and ``Good Morning America'' that they had found some $7,000 in turn-of-the-century bills worth an estimated $150,000 while digging up a shrub in Kozak's Methuen back yard.
``They probably could have sold the money and no one would have ever known,'' Methuen police Chief Joe Solomon said. ``It just got away from them, sort of like the snowball rolls down the hill and it keeps going and crushes you.''
Yesterday, Crebase and Billcliff were under arrest, and Kozak and a fourth man - Mathew Ingham, 23, of Newton, N.H. - were wanted for allegedly stealing the stash, which had been stuffed into the gutter along a Newbury barn where the roofers had done some repairs.
Their story began to unravel this week after police received an anonymous tip and began to notice inconsistencies in the men's statements.
By Thursday night, police and the Secret Service had traced the money - a collection of ones, twos, fives and tens worth an estimated $150,000 because of their age - to a 200-acre Newbury farm where the men had worked, and arrested Crebase, 24, of Methuen, and Billcliff, 26, of Manchester, N.H.
Yesterday, the two pleaded not guilty in Lawrence District Court to charges of conspiracy, receiving stolen property and acting as an accessory after the fact and were released on bail.
Their attorneys told Judge Thomas Brennen there was no evidence that they had stolen the money. But Assistant District Attorney Gabrielle Clark pointed to Billcliff's prior record, which includes two years' probation for a 1999 counterfeiting charge.
The owner of the farm declined to comment yesterday.
Police said they still have to determine who gets the money.
The farm owner's cousin, Robert Brown, said the money most likely belonged to her granduncle or great-grandfather, who sold cider, which was popular during prohibition.
``They weren't very bright,'' Brown said of the defendants. ``They could have just hung on to the money.''
In this April 22nd photo, Tim Crebase lights his cigar by burning a dollar bill. (Eagle-Tribune photo by Carl Russo)
I saw that and I thought that Fat Matt and his ice cream boy were arrested.
Methuen..nuff said.
Dumb and Dumber.....
If the "cider" she's referring to is the same as the "cider" my grandfather sold, she just lost the money too. The police will now be able to confiscate it like they do "drug" money, "drug cars", and "drug houses". In fact she may have just lost the farm that her Great Grandfather bought with his illegal "Cider money"
I'm sure the old man was selling it for strictly medicinal purposes, just like my grandfather did! Of course what he sold was from Scotland via Canada and was, shall we say, a bit more refined than cider. :)
I saw this on GMA the other day. Diane was gushing and laughing about it. Had they not gone on their media blitz, it might have been okay.
In fact, they said "finders keepers" on GMA.
Just for the record the fishing knife my grandfather gave me was bought with his social security money, not stolen money, or "cider money".
Is a fall-down drunk.
The best medical advice I ever received was thus:
Whenever you feel achy, or just whenever, soak it in cider.
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