Captain charged with embezzling $5,700 in guns from sheriff’s office

A former sheriff’s deputy in West Virginia pled not guilty Monday to felony charges stemming from an alleged embezzlement scheme involving $5,745 worth of guns from the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department where he worked.

Dennis Streets, 53, was arraigned on a count each of felony embezzlement and committing a felony fraudulent scheme, Guns.com confirmed with a court clerk.

According to the indictment, Streets allegedly sold the 13 guns to John Vinson of GlockCop LLC in Martinsburg between October 2008 and March 2013. The indictment further alleges that Streets sold the guns on false pretenses and gave Vinson the impression that he had the authority to do so.

According to the indictment, the stolen guns and amounts sold for included:

• Savage Arms rifle, $250
• CAI 9mm handgun, $150
• Marlin Model 60 rifle, $60
• Colt Python revolver, $1,275
• Taurus PT22 handgun, $110
• Ruger P85 handgun, $250
• Colt Pony handgun, $550
• Sig Sauer P226 handgun, $600
• Ruger Mini 14 rifle, $475
• Remington Model 700, $350
• Remington 870 shotgun, $300
• Taurus Model 689 revolver, $200
• Sig Sauer P229, $1,200

The former deputy, a captain, announced his retirement in January 2013, which was around the same time the investigation into the missing firearms began, the Herald-Mail reported.

In a separate case, the deputy’s wife, Amber Streets, was accused of pawning two spare firearms — 9mm and .45-caliber handguns — owned by the sheriff’s office court-security officers between May and July 2013. The guns were later recovered from Frazier’s Pawn Shop in Martinsburg by sheriff’s deputy B.F. Hall.

The Herald-Mail further reported that Hall’s complaint said that Dennis Streets told him his wife was going through some hard times and took the guns from their house.

Dennis Streets bought his service weapon back from the same pawn shop in November 2013.