Palmer Police Victim of Computer Scam, Court Records Say

Palmer Township police continue to settle scores with a computer company owner accused of taking payments but not delivering the goods to customers.

And one of those victims—in a case that goes back almost four years—is the Palmer police department itself, court records say.

The records say that shortly after taking the township’s check for almost $24,000, Charlie R. Sandt Jr. went “missing” from not only the police department but his business, Computer Innovations.

Charges against Sandt, 41, whose last known address was the 100 block of S. 14th Street, Allentown, involve two cases, the records say.

Last month, police charged Sandt with taking a payment of about $428 from a township resident but not delivering a used router the resident had ordered.

This week, police charged Sandt with taking the $24,000 from the township in August 2009 but never delivering five laptops and software that were to be installed in police vehicles.

Sandt deposited the check in a bank account, and while he was “missing,” made withdrawals so that the account’s ending balance had dwindled to $67.01, the records say.

As a result of this week’s charges—felony counts of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received, theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property—Sandt was committed to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $25,000 bail.

He was arraigned Thursday by District Judge Jackie Taschner of Palmer Township.