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Theft suspect is caught purple-handed in sting

Roger Farmer, a school electrician, is known as a good worker and a rock-solid neighbor.

By THOMAS LAKE and MARY SPICUZZA
Published November 4, 2006

ADVERTISEMENT [Handout photo] Farmer, 48, is charged with numerous counts of criminal use of personal identification information. Watch theft surveillance video

As the credit cards vanished, a pattern formed. Teachers were victims. Public schools were crime scenes. The thief used discretion: He snatched the cards one at a time, leaving the purses, and his version of a wild spending spree was an ill-gotten tank of gasoline from the Hess Express.

Detectives tracked him for more than a year. On Thursday, they set an elaborate trap.

It included a decoy purse, a hidden camera and a powder that turns fingers purple.

Their target was Roger Dale Farmer, 48, an electrician paid $35,574 a year to maintain schools across the county. He was not one of the usual suspects.

He had no prior criminal record in Florida. He did his work admirably, in the words of one supervisor. And his neighbor knew him as a rock-solid friend who drove her to and from the hospital when she needed vascular surgery.

Nevertheless, said Sgt. Bill Moltzan of the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, Farmer faced a growing stack of circumstantial evidence.

He had access to every public school in the county. Lake Myrtle Elementary in Land O'Lakes. Weightman Middle School in Wesley Chapel. Cotee River Elementary in New Port Richey. Witnesses put him on school grounds as cards disappeared from each one.

When sheriff's detectives questioned him, he maintained his innocence. But when the thefts continued, they decided to test their suspicions.

School officials lured him Thursday morning to an empty classroom at Centennial Elementary School in Dade City. They gave him a bogus work order to fix an exit sign.

On the teacher's desk was a woman's purse. Inside the purse was a powder that looks innocuous until it touches the skin. According to Moltzan, body heat and perspiration transform it into indelible purple ink.

Farmer initially took the bait, Moltzan said. He reached into the purse, opened the wallet and took out a credit card.

But then he put it back. Moltzan believes Farmer may have changed his mind when he found only one credit card and realized it would be easily missed.

When Farmer left the classroom, he found detectives in the hallway. They questioned him about the thefts. He denied everything. Then he asked if he could smoke a cigarette.

Go ahead, they told him.

He took out a cigarette. He looked at his fingers.

They were turning purple.

And then, Moltzan said, Farmer started to talk.

As of Friday morning, he had been linked to thefts at five schools from 11 victims. Moltzan said he may be implicated in several more. Farmer is charged with numerous counts of criminal use of personal identification information as well as possession of alprazolam sold commercially as Xanax without a prescription.

News of his arrest stunned Patty Horne, 68, his neighbor across the street. She was convinced of Farmer's virtue.

"Roger?" she said in a phone interview, her voice filling with horror. "You gotta be out of your mind."

Farmer of 15724 Jackie Lane in Hudson was held Friday at the Land O'Lakes jail in lieu of $85,000 bail. Officials said that while he was being booked, they found another credit card in his shoe.

Times researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report. Thomas Lake can be reached at tlake@sptimes.com or 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245.

[Last modified November 3, 2006, 22:47:55]