My South Philly Review Crime Beat Column: Protect Your Car From Thieves

The South Philly Review ran my Crime Beat column today.

You can read the column above or the text below:

I recall a friend telling me about the day he left his house early in the morning and walked towards his parked car.

But the car was not there. Somone had stolen it. My friend was furious as he not only lost his car, he also lost the contents of the car, which included a variety of items belonging to him, his wife and his daughter.

He missed a day of work and pay, as he called the police and waited for them to come and take his statement. He never recovered his car.   

“Finding that your vehicle has been stolen can be a stressful event,” said Dr. Steven Cliff, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Acting Administrator. “Vehicle theft is driven by money and greed, a dangerous business that victimizes everyone, but fortunately, drivers can take precautions to reduce the risk of it happening.”

NHTSA is a U.S. Department of Transportation agency responsible for reducing deaths, injuries, and economic losses from motor vehicle crashes. NHTSA is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation and focuses on road and vehicle safety nationwide. Established under the Highway Safety Act of 1970, it continues ion programs originally managed by the National Highway Safety Bureau.

According to NHTSA, a motor vehicle was stolen every 48 seconds in the United States in 2025. “NHTSA investigates safety defects in motor vehicles, sets and enforces fuel economy standards, helps states and local communities reduce the threat of drunk drivers, promotes the use of safety belts, child safety seats and air bags, investigates odometer fraud, establishes and enforces vehicle anti-theft regulations, conducts research on driver behavior and traffic safety, and provides consumer information on motor vehicle safety topics,” the agency noted.

NHTSA also highlights the potential for motor vehicle theft, preventive measures vehicle owners should take, the importance of addressing the vehicle theft problem, and its significant economic impact.

NHTSA offers tips to help prevent vehicle theft.

·         Park in well-lit areas.

·         Close and lock all windows and doors when you park.

·         Put away your valuables.

·         Do not leave your keys in your vehicle.

·         Do not leave the area while your vehicle is running.

·         Remember to lock your vehicle every time you walk away to prevent vehicle theft.

·         Use common sense when parking and exiting your vehicle:

·         Take your vehicle's key; do not leave it in or on your vehicle.

·         Close and lock all windows and doors when you park.

·         Park in well-lit areas if possible.

·         Never leave valuables in your vehicle, especially if they can be seen from outside the vehicle.

“Radios and wheel covers aren't the only popular stolen vehicle parts thieves take. They want whatever sells, from the mandated labeled parts to those that aren't. Some of the most popular items stolen from vehicles include air bags, GPS units, cell phones, iPads, laptops, and purses. Parts like doors, engines and transmissions are stripped and sold,” NHTSA explained.

 

According to NHTSA, there are numerous antitheft systems and devices designed to make vehicles more difficult to steal or easier to trace and recover:

·         Audible and Visible Devices: These devices, such as a horn alarm, deter theft by bringing attention to an unauthorized attempt to steal or enter a vehicle. Visible devices create a visual threat/warning/deterrence, such as the use of steering-wheel locks, as well as theft-deterrent decals, flashing lights, and window etching.

·         Immobilizing-Type Devices: These prevent thieves from bypassing a vehicle’s ignition system and hot-wiring the vehicle. Some incorporate computer chips in ignition keys or disable the flow of electricity or fuel to the engine.

·         Vehicle Recovery Systems: These devices use electronic transmission technology that help law enforcement reveal the location of stolen vehicles—and possibly catch the thief in the act.

If you are a victim of vehicle theft, follow these steps:

·         Contact police immediately to file a stolen-vehicle report. You will need a copy of the police report and/or a case number to provide to your insurance company. You may also be asked to provide the following information:

·         License plate number;

·         Make, model, and color of your vehicle; and

·         Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) and any identifying characteristics.

·         Contact your insurance company to file a claim within 24 hours of your vehicle being stolen.

·         Paul Davis’s Crime Beat column appears here each week. He can be reached via pauldavisoncrime.com. 

A Look Back At The Multi-Million Dollar Defense Contract Fraud and Bribery Case At The Philadelphia Quartermaster

Counterterrorism magazine published my piece on a look back at the multi-million dollar Defense Department fraud and bribery case at the Defense Personnel Support Center, known locally in South Philadelphia as the "Quartermaster."

You can read the piece via the above and below pages (click on them to enlarge) or the below text:

    

 

Operation Thimble: A Look Back at the Multi-Million Dollar 

Defense Contract Fraud and Bribery Case at the Philadelphia Quartermaster  

By Paul Davis

Back in the early 1980s, before I became a writer, I was a young Defense Department civilian employee doing security work at a DoD command in Philadelphia. I recall being tasked with assisting a Defense Department attorney who was working on a case of procurement fraud against a contractor who supplied the U.S. Army with substandard tires for trucks and other Army vehicles. The substandard tires might have caused accidents and injured or killed soldiers. 

The attorney and I were both employees of the Defense Contract Administration Services Region (DCASR) Philadelphia. At the time, the DoD command oversaw defense contractors in the state of Delaware, Southern New Jersey, and Southeastern Pennsylvania. These contractors supplied the armed forces with everything from clothing, medical and textile products to major electronic weapons systems. From boots to cruise missiles, DCASR provided contract administration, quality assurance, engineering and program oversight of the contractors for the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and NASA.

The attorney asked me to act as his investigator. I went out and conducted interviews with military people and DoD civilian employees who were involved with the tire contracts and the contractor payment process. I also gathered documentation that aided the attorney in proving the fraud.

I received an award for my efforts, but both the attorney and I were disappointed that senior Defense officials made the call to take the company to civil court rather than to a criminal trial. The company settled out of court and agreed to pay a substantial sum back to the Defense Department, as it feared being “disbarred” from receiving future DOD contracts.

During the many years that I worked at DoD, I served as an investigating officer and performed internal investigations. I also provided support to Naval Investigative Service and Defense Investigative Service special agents on a number of procurement fraud cases. Many of the fraud cases I worked on endangered the safety of military members, and as a Navy veteran who served on an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War, I was proud of my contributions.

In the 1980s, DCASR was a tenant command collocated on the Defense Personnel Support Center (DPSC) compound, which was an 11-square block facility composed of buff-colored buildings centered by a tall clock tower in South Philadelphia. A major employer and neighborhood mainstay, DPSC was known locally as the “Quartermaster.”

DPSC was the second largest defense procurement center in the U.S., and the military colossus purchased more than a billion dollars of food, clothing, textiles, medicines and medical equipment annually at the wholesale level for the men and women of the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force. The procurement center contracted for more than 50,000 items, including uniforms, blankets and sleeping bags. 

I was not involved in the 1987 external FBI investigation of a multimillion-dollar fraud and bribery scandal at the Quartermaster, but like the other 7,000-plus employees at the center, I was rocked by the outcome. The investigation, code-named “Operation Thimble,” involved crooked contractors, consultants and senior Defense Department personnel, several of whom I knew and worked with. The FBI investigation led to the conviction of 26 individuals and seven corporations, and the recovery of $4.2 million in fines, civil judgments and forfeitures. The scandal made headline news across the country.

The FBI, working with the Defense Investigative Service, took down clothing manufacturers nation-wide who provided uniforms for the military worldwide and their bribery of DPSC and DCASR officials who pushed million-dollar contracts their way and greased the payment process for them.

Although the overwhelming majority of the Quartermaster’s military personnel and civilian employees were honest and hardworking, the FBI arrested Frank Coccia, the highest-ranking DOD civilian official at DPSC. Coccia was the deputy director of the Clothing and Textile Division, and he was prosecuted along with several DPSC and DCASR officials.      

I reached out to Linda Dale Hoffa, who was an assistant U.S. attorney in Philadelphia in 1987 when she prosecuted the fraud and bribery cases at the Defense Personnel Support Center and former FBI Agent Joseph L. Ford, who led the investigation.

Hoffa later served as the Criminal Division Chief at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia where she supervised more than 100 federal prosecutors in both violent crime and white-collar crime cases. She supervised, as well as conducted, thousands of criminal investigations, and tried many high profile and complex cases. Hoffa currently chairs the White Collar/Government Investigations Practice Group at the Philadelphia law firm Dilworth Paxson LLP.

Joseph L. Ford retired in 2016 after a 30-year career with the FBI. He served as the FBI’s Associate Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer. He also was the FBI’s Chief Financial Officer. Ford investigated significant public corruption matters, major defense procurement program frauds, computer crimes, health care fraud and corporate fraud.  Today he is the owner and principal with the firm of Newton and Ford Associates, LLC, which provides management and consulting services to clients in both private sector and government organizations. 

I asked the two how the investigation began.

“It started very small. There had been rumors for years about a great deal of corruption at this facility,” Hoffa replied. “Initially, the two people investigating were FBI Agents Joseph Ford and Peter Smith and we were figuring out how to get an “in.” It started with an informant who was a government contractor who was tired of the corruption.”

“We had an investigation on an individual named Mario D’Antonio and he had a number of facilities that he owned and operated that were manufacturing uniforms for the military,” Ford added. “He agreed to plead to a felony and became a cooperating witness.” 

“We had him wire a recording device and meet with people. Those consensual recordings were made and that and other evidence helped build up to a wiretap application,” Hoffa recalled.

“He had documentary evidence that he provided two $6,000 loans to Frank Coccia’s children through an intermediary. Both signed a promissory note and D’Antonio was holding the notes. That allowed us to get some of the probable cause for the wiretap,” Ford said.

Hoffa noted that Coccia was at the time the highest-ranking civilian Department of Defense official at DPSC.

“He was the guy who made the ultimate decision in regard to awarding the contracts. The Defense Personnel Support Center awarded all the military clothing contracts for the entire Armed Services of the United States,” Hoffa said. “At the time it was a billion dollars in contracts a year. This was in the early 1980s and I will always remember Joe in my office describing what DPSC did and said it was a billion dollars in contracts. In the 1980s no one used the word billons. I said to Joe, oh, you mean a million. He said no, a billion.

“Coccia’s viewpoint was everyone is getting rich but me. Why not me? Once we got Mario D’Antonio’s cooperation, and we had documentary collaboration of benefits being paid to Frank Coccia’s for his children, it showed that there was a corrupt relationship there. What was significant about getting a wiretap was, in the 1980s, wiretaps were used only in drug or organized crime cases. They had never been done before in a procurement fraud case,” Hoffa explained.

Ford said the first wiretaps were on Coccia’s DPSC office and his New Jersey home.

“They also placed a wiretap on Leo Lamer, a retired Defense Department employee who became a consultant for clothing companies,” Hoffa said. “He was the “bagman”. He was the guy who negotiated the terms of the contract, got the money and gave it to Frank Coccia.”

“The wiretap on Lamer was extremely productive. On Christmas day, he made 50 criminal calls. He was “dial-a-crime” for us,” Ford said.

Hoffa noted that the “bagman” was the one talking to both parties. He explained the deal and put it together.

“Lamer used money orders to pay Coccia off using a local bank and that tied in a lot of the bribe money and other instruments of bribery,” Ford said. “Coccio would use payphones to communicate. He rarely used his home phone. Lamer would accept collect calls from pay phones from government employees and contractors. Lamer was sloppy, as he used his home phone. He would wheel and deal with contractors during the day and government employees at night.”

“One of the most interesting aspects of our case, and this was pre-Patriot Act, was we knew that Leo Lamer had promised to send a letter that would explain a certain transaction,” Hoffa said. “We got a search warrant to intercept that letter, open that letter, copy that letter, reseal that letter, and send that letter on its way. When you do a search warrant, you do an inventory. We received approval to delay notification of an inventory. These things are now codified under the Patriot Act, but not at that time. The letter spelled out the quid pro quo that for every item of clothing, so much was going to be paid.”

Ford said they also placed a wiretap on Joseph Cagno, another retired Defense Department-turned consultant and “bagman”. Cagno and Lamer worked together. Lamer helped negotiate the bribes for DPSC employees on behalf of the contractors and Cagno bribed a small number of quality assurance inspectors and other employees from the Defense Contract Administrative Services Management Area (DCASMA) Philadelphia, a DCASR field office.

“When we searched Frank Coccia’s house, we took out a half of million dollars in cash and gold Krugerrands. He had cuppy holes throughout his house. We popped open a briefcase and it was completely filled with cash,” Ford said.

Ford said that no military personnel at DPSC were involved in the scheme, as they rotated in and out every three years. He said the “good ole boy” civilian network was very strong at DPSC.

“There were no trials. There were 26 convictions of individuals, and everyone pled guilty. That was a testament to the fine work Joe and his team did,” Hoffa said.

“At Frank Coccia’s sentencing, the courtroom was packed. In my experience as a federal prosecutor, when the courtroom is packed it is always the friends and family of the defendant who think he is a great guy,” Hoffa said. “I asked someone who are these people and was told that these are the people who worked for Frank Coccia, and they want to see justice done. In my 27 years as a prosecutor, I never again saw a courtroom packed like that.”                     

Sentences ranged from probation to one to ten years in prison.      

“Defense Department corruption can permeate an entire system and put at risk the lives of military personnel,” Hoffa said. “Corruption costs taxpayers.  It costs everybody.”  

About the Author

Paul Davis is a long-time contributor to the Journal and writes the online Threatcon column.

 

 

 

 

 

You can also read my piece on the Philadelphia Quartermaster revisited via the link below: 

Paul Davis On Crime: The Philadelphia Quartermaster Revisited 

The Walnut Street Presents the Addams Family: The Musical

Philly Daily, where my On Crime column appears each week, reports that the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia is presenting “The Addams Family: The Musical” from now until November 1^st.

You can read the piece via the link below:

The Walnut Street Presents the Addams Family: The Musical – Philly Daily 

A Look Back At The Defense Logistic Agency's Support of Counter Narcotics and Special Operations

 I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was a 12-year-old growing up in South Philadelphia. 

I wrote my first published pieces when I was an 18-year-old sailor serving aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk during the Vietnam War. I wrote three pieces for the ship’s newspaper. 

Many years later, when I was serving as the civilian chief of Installation Services for a Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) command collocated with the Defense Personnel Support Center (DPSC), known locally as the "Quartermaster," in Philadelphia, I became a contributing writer to the command’s in-house magazine. 

As the chief of Installation Services, I oversaw security, safety and other support services for the command. In 1986 I also became the public affairs representative of the command. 

Several of my articles in the Philadelphia command’s magazine were picked up and published in Dimensions, DLA’s magazine, which was distributed worldwide to military and civilian DOD employees.   

You can read one of my pieces above and below:

You can also read another one of my DLA pieces below: 

I went on from writing for Defense Department magazines to writing for newspapers such as the Philadelphia Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer, and later the Washington Times. I also became a regular contributor to the South Philly Review, my hometown paper, where today I write a weekly Crime Beat column. 

My Philly Daily On Crime Column: Feds Takedown Two Illegal Alien Criminals In Philadelphia

Philly Daily ran my On Crime column today.   You can read the column via the link below or the text below:  Paul Davis: Feds take down two illegal alien criminals in Philadelphia – Philly Daily As harsh criticism of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal and local law enforcement agencies mount in some quarters, with some activists and politicians calling for the abolishment of ICE and the defunding of other federal and local law enforcement agencies, two recent cases in Philadelphia illustrate the good work that the Feds are doing to protect the public by dealing with illegal immigrant criminals.  On September 16th the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in Washington D.C. released a statement after ICE arrested a previously deported illegal alien sex offender who had been convicted of sexual assault in Pennsylvania.  “After ICE Philadelphia received an intelligence tip via the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) tipline, ICE and the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) obtained a criminal warrant for Marco Gomez, an illegal alien from the Dominican Republic, on charges of illegal re-entry and failure to register as a sex offender. On September 14, ICE, HSI, and USMS arrested Gomez in Philadelphia. He is currently in USMS custody,” DHS stated.  According to DHS, Gomez’s criminal history includes convictions for attempt of involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, sexual assault, indecent assault, and unlawful restraint in Philadelphia County in April 2006, which made him a tier 3 registered sex offender in Pennsylvania. After serving his sentence, he was deported on August 4, 2015. "This illegal alien has been convicted of sexual assault and is a registered sex offender in the state of Pennsylvania,” said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “After being deported following his sentence, he illegally re-entered the United States under the Biden Administration and had been living in Philadelphia. Thanks to the hard work of the men and women of ICE, as well as our partners in the Department of Justice, this predator has been taken off our streets. He will soon be removed from our country and will no longer be able to threaten American citizens.”   Gomez first illegally entered the United States at an unknown date and location.   “Following his deportation in 2015, he claims to have illegally re-entered the United States – a felony – at an unknown date and location in 2023 under the Biden Administration,” DHS stated.

The Feds also dealt with another bad guy illegal alien. On September 17^th, U.S. Attorney David Metcalf announced that Gurlal Singh, 31, an Indian national who has been residing in the U.S. illegally, has been convicted at trial of drug and gun offenses.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO), Singh was charged by superseding indictment in September of last year and found guilty by a federal jury of possession with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and possession of a firearm by an alien illegally and unlawfully in the U.S.

“As detailed in court filings and proven at trial, on August 28, 2024, at approximately 1:17 a.m., Pennsylvania State Police troopers from Hamburg Barracks and Bethel Township Police Department officers responded to the defendant’s Bethel Township, Berks County residence for a report of a shooting incident related to a home invasion. Troopers secured the location, conducted a safety sweep, and located an AK-47 style rifle near the front door, as well as a fired cartridge casing and projectile on the first floor,” the USAO stated. “The same day, investigators obtained and executed a state search and seizure warrant for the residence. A search of the premises revealed a quantity of cocaine, kilogram size wrapping materials, and a black digital scale.

Law enforcement learned that between April 2024 and August 28, 2024, Singh and another person, charged elsewhere, possessed with the intent to distribute 28 kilograms of cocaine. The cocaine was initially stored at Singh’s Bethel residence, which is in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and subsequently moved by the defendant and the other person to an area storage facility located in the Middle District of Pennsylvania.” 

In addition to the AK-47 style rifle that he possessed and discharged in his home, the USAO noted, Singh was found to have two shotguns, a pistol, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, which, as an illegal alien and prohibited person, he was not lawfully permitted to possess.

Singh is scheduled to be sentenced on January 7 and faces a maximum possible term of life imprisonment.

“The case is part of “Operation Take Back America,” a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.” the USAO stated.

The USAO further noted that the case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Pennsylvania State Police, with assistance from the Bethel Township Police Department and the Berks County District Attorney’s Office.

Two illegal alien criminals were taken off the streets by the Feds. How many more are there?

Paul Davis’s On Crime column appears here each week. He is also a contributor to Counterterrorism magazine. He can be reached via pauldavisoncrime.com. 

My South Philly Review Crime Beat: South Philly Retired Cop Pens Memoir

The South Philly Review ran my Crime Beat column today:

You can read the column via the page above or the text below: 

Gary Capuano, a South Philadelphia retired police sergeant and the author of several books on crime and the police, has written a memoir about his 24 years as a cop called “Behind the Badge: Policing, Politics and Pandering in Philly.” 

A dedicated police officer, Capuano received many awards and commendations throughout his career. He said he became a police officer because he wanted to serve his native city and make a difference in the lives of his community. “Behind the Badge” recounts some of the most notable cases in his career, including the many dangerous situations he often encountered serving arrest warrants, as well as some of the more offbeat and humorous moments on the job. 

I reached out to Capuano and asked him why he wrote the book. 

“I wrote the book to memorialize my career, focusing on the events I believed were the most interesting and would best hold the reader’s attention,” Capuano said. “I began my career in uniformed patrol in the 4th District. From there, I joined 5 Squad’s Stolen Auto Detail and eventually its burglary team. After being promoted to detective, I was assigned to Southwest Detectives, which was a wonderful place to learn and develop as an investigator.” 

Capuano said he later moved to Southwest Detectives, where he led the Fugitive Task Force for six years. 

“With the help and guidance of Inspector Dennis Wilson, I was later promoted to sergeant and assigned to the 3rd District, where my career would ultimately end, but not in the way I expected. 

“When I graduated from the Police Academy, I was fortunate to work alongside several outstanding veteran officers who showed me the ropes. I specifically remember David Budka, Anthony Parrotti, and John “JR” Ross. Those men helped guide me during the earliest days of my career. Many detectives also contributed to my development, including Joseph Abruzzese, Bill Carey, Teddy Manko, Joe Gibson, and “the Bobbys”—Bob Lis and Bob Conn. I was equally fortunate to work for many excellent supervisors, including Captain John Heath; Sergeants Mike Petrucci, Mike Anderson, Anthony LaSalle, and Charles Layton; Lieutenants Anthony Mirabella and Pat Doherty; and, last, but certainly not least, Lieutenant John Walker.” 

Capuano said that the high point of his career was leading the Fugitive Task Force.

“During my six years in charge, I don’t remember the exact number of open warrants we had, but we significantly reduced that number, even as new arrest warrants arrived daily. In addition to serving arrest warrants, we executed search warrants, conducted extraditions, picked up fugitives being held in other jurisdictions, and transported prisoners from correctional institutions when they faced new charges in our division. Assistant district attorneys frequently asked us to locate witnesses because they had confidence that our team would get the job done.”

One arrest that stands out for Capuano involved a West Philadelphia defendant whom the U.S. Marshals had been trying to locate for more than a year.

“My team and I were ultimately the ones who tracked him down and arrested him. He was wanted in connection with three homicides, along with numerous robberies and assaults. Another memorable case involved a man who had accumulated an astonishing 99 prior arrests.”

Capuano also noted that politics influenced the police department and it left a bad taste in his mouth.

“The lowest point of my career came when I was injured while chasing a suspect who had bailed out of a stolen vehicle. I eventually underwent four surgeries, including back surgery that the City and its insurance carrier had approved and paid for,” Capuano recalled. “Because they had accepted the injury and authorized the surgery, I believed they would rule in my favor when my disability appeal was heard. I could not have been more wrong and I lost my appeal. Am I bitter? Absolutely.”

Capuano said he was concerned about today’s cops.

“It seems as though the police officer is always presumed to be at fault, while at the same time walking around with a target on their back,” Capuano said.

You can purchase Gary Capuano’s books via the link below:

www.amazon.com/author/garycapuano

Paul Davis’s Crime Beat column appears here each week. He can be reached via pauldavisoncrime.com.