[ad_1]
A judge gave a Gary man five years in prison Wednesday for a string of burglaries.
Christian Felkamp, 24, of Gary, pleaded guilty in June to two counts of burglary.
He admitted breaking into Robert Henry Corporation’s property on Jan. 25 in the 2100 block of Southlake Mall in Hobart and stealing a trailer with four spools of NIPSCO wire.
In a separate incident, he admitted to sawing through the roof of Fantasy Gentleman’s Club, 3850 179th Street in Hammond on Nov. 22 to try stealing cash from the ATM.
As part of the deal, he has to repay nearly $7,000 to the Robert Henry Corporation, $2,300 to the strip club, $1,000 to Midwest PGM Recycling, and more than $28,000 to NIPSCO.
In court Wednesday, Judge Salvador Vasquez asked why he had done “so many burglaries.”
Maybe it was “out of opportunity, boredom,” the judge said.
In exchange for the plea deal, Lake County Deputy Prosecutor Adam Martin agreed to dismiss several other theft charges.
Defense lawyer Chris Stidham said after the hearing he argued that Felkamp had no prior criminal history, had a tight-knit family, but made “poor decisions.” It was a period where he was dealing with “life stresses.” His client was working for the Robert Henry corporation, a NIPSCO subcontractor, he said.
Felkamp has four other pending burglary and auto theft cases in Porter County.
Originally Published:
[ad_2]
Meredith Colias-Pete
Source link