Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012 | 9:48 p.m.
A Clark County firefighter has been charged with 10 felony counts of burglary after reportedly confessing to stealing about $800 from fellow firefighters.
John Brush, 44, faces 10 counts of burglary, six counts of unlawful use of system and one count of theft, according to the Clark County district attorney’s office.
Between July 13 and Aug. 27 of 2011, amounts ranging from $60 to $200 were stolen from the chow funds of several fire stations, according to a Metro Police report. A chow fund is a pool of money each firefighter contributes to for groceries during shifts spanning the course of several days.
In the report, Brush admittedly made emergency calls from nearby gas stations and told dispatchers fabricated stories to lure firefighters away from targeted stations, the report said.
Brush told detectives he would enter the station after fire crews left to respond to false calls he made about Dumpster fires or car collisions, according to the report.
On more than one occasion Brush told detectives that after the burglaries he drove to nearby bars or casinos and gambled for a few hours with the stolen money, the report said.
Brush told detectives he could not find the chow fund of Station No. 19, at 5575 S. Spencer Street, according to the report.
By Aug. 27 firefighters at Station No. 19 had caught wind of fire stations being burglarized, so they hid their chow funds in a secret location, the report said.
As cash went missing, station captains alerted Deputy Chief Russ Cameron, who began checking the entry access history into each station, the report said.
During the investigation Cameron told police the access log allegedly placed Brush at several stations on his days off and stations he did not work at, the report said.
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