Kenai man arrested after tools stolen in Nikiski posted for sale on Craigslist

  • By DAN BALMER
  • Thursday, January 29, 2015 1:22pm
  • News

A Kenai man was arrested Wednesday after a Craigslist ad linked him to tools that were reported stolen from a Nikiski business. Alaska State Troopers with the Criminal Suppression Detail responded to the ad for a plasma cutter and contacted Jason McCormick, 37, at a residence on St. Joseph Street near Soldotna. A plasma cutter and other tools were reported stolen from Baker Hughes in Nikiski over the weekend. Troopers recovered the plasma cutter, which was valued at more than $1,800.

McCormick was charged with second-degree theft, a class C felony. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and a $50,000 fine. The Craigslist ad, posted Sunday, had an asking price of $1,250 for the “thermal dynamics cut master 52 plasma cutter.”

The comment from the seller read: “I am selling my awesome picture of this plasma cutter made by thermal dynamics, which I purchased unbeknownst to me it was worth so much as $1,250. It will cut through 1 1/8” steel and cost $2,300 somewhere in the real life. I have no use for it anymore, so I am selling it for someone else to do something fun with it.”

The post was updated Wednesday with two words at the top, “Apparently stolen.”

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McCormick was arraigned in Kenai District Court Thursday. He is currently jailed at Wildwood Pretrial Facility and is being held without bail.

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