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Firefighters to replace lost money

County fire officials will give the man the $640 he said he lost after his wallet was taken from a 7-Eleven counter. A tape shows a firefighter taking it.

By STEVE THOMPSON
Published February 25, 2005

NEW PORT RICHEY - Fire Chief Anthony Lopinto says he was "taken aback" Thursday when he read of a Pasco firefighter mixed up in the case of a missing wallet.

Lopinto already knew of Sunday's episode, but the situation took on greater significance for him when he read in the St. Petersburg Times about the man who misplaced the billfold.

"I realized it appears that he really needed that money," Lopinto said. He didn't want Robert Hutto to have to wait for the case to be resolved to get it back.

Lopinto called other fire officials, then called Hutto. This morning, fire officials will give him $640 to replace the money he says he lost.

"We're trying to make a bad situation better for him," Lopinto said. The money is not a payoff - he wants Hutto to continue to press charges and seek restitution, Lopinto said. "I just don't want him to have to wait around to get his money back."

Sunday's incident began when Hutto, 27, accidentally left his wallet on the counter of a 7-Eleven. When he returned to look for it, he and the store's manager found that a surveillance video showed a firefighter taking it.

Only after Hutto went looking for the wallet at a nearby fire station did a volunteer firefighter, Sean Michael Carr, turn it in. Carr, 32, told investigators that he had picked it up by mistake. Sheriff's detectives didn't believe him, and there was another problem: He had returned the wallet with only $10 in it. Hutto, who makes $6.50 an hour working at a pizzeria, said it had held $650 in cash from his tax refund.

Lopinto said he called the Pasco Sheriff's Office about the case. A detective's description of what was on the surveillance tape convinced Lopinto that the grand theft charge against Carr is warranted.

According to a Sheriff's Office report: The tape shows Hutto leaving the wallet. Five minutes later on the tape, a man in a firefighter's uniform eyes the wallet, puts his hand over it, looks around, then picks it up.

"It just leaves me with the impression that there wasn't much of a mistake there," Lopinto said.

Lopinto said he takes Hutto on his word that there was $650 in the wallet.

"I believe him and so does everybody else here," he said.

"Most people have left their wallet somewhere ... ," Lopinto said. "Nobody should expect that if a firefighter finds it he wouldn't turn it in."

"The rest of us don't condone it," he said. "In fact, we're repulsed by it."

Carr, who lives in Indian Shores, was arrested Tuesday and released Wednesday on $5,000 bail. Fire officials have suspended him pending the outcome of the case.

Hutto said he was shocked and appreciative Thursday when he heard from the fire chief.

"The first thing he said when I answered was he was sorry," Hutto said. "He sounded really sincere about it."

Hutto said Lopinto told him he was hit hard when he read of a comment by Hutto's 5-year-old son upon seeing a fire engine: "They stole Daddy's wallet."

Lopinto invited the boy to the station for a tour of the fire engines and to get a fire hat with his name on it, Hutto said.

Lopinto wasn't the only one who was struck by Hutto's situation Thursday. One woman called the Times to ask how she could get $50 to him.

"I've lost my wallet a couple of times," said 76-year-old Pat Machtinger of Hudson, "and was fortunate enough to have it returned."

[Last modified February 25, 2005, 00:52:18]