West Seneca police officer arrested for allegedly stealing from home improvement stores

A West Seneca law enforcement officer was arrested Tuesday for allegedly thieving countless numbers of pounds in products from house advancement retailers, the Erie County District Attorney’s Business office declared Wednesday.

Ryan J. Miller, 33, a West Seneca resident who is a patrol officer with seven a long time on the career, was billed with felony counts of 3rd-diploma grand larceny and 3rd-degree felony possession of stolen residence. He was arraigned Tuesday evening right before West Seneca City Courtroom Justice Jeffrey M. Harrington and launched on his very own recognizance.

If convicted, he faces up to seven decades in jail.

Miller is accused of stealing products from residence improvement stores in West Seneca and other places all over Western New York among Oct. 1, 2021 and April 8, 2022, the DA’s office explained. He is accused of thieving more than $10,000 in items, officials said.

“As soon as the items was in his possession, the defendant would allegedly steal the merchandise by canceling an get or by leaving the retailer with out having to pay for the products,” the assertion stated.

In one particular occasion, Miller allegedly acquired two new water heaters and then returned the packing containers with old h2o heaters in them and bought a full refund, Flynn stated.

Miller has been suspended with out pay out, a assertion from West Seneca Police Chief Edward A. Baker said.

The investigation started in March, Baker said, when his business office was alerted about “an ongoing incident involving the off-duty conduct of an officer with the West Seneca Law enforcement Division.”

Baker contacted the DA’s office, both equally Baker and DA John J. Flynn Jr. stated. “As before long as they located out about it, they known as me instantly and they recused on their own,” Flynn informed The Buffalo News.

On Tuesday, the DA’s private criminal offense investigators, working with West Seneca law enforcement, executed a research warrant at Miller’s property on Ehinger Generate where they allegedly recovered some stolen items.

Miller is scheduled to return to court at 9 a.m. May perhaps 27.

“The West Seneca Law enforcement Section prides alone on our honor and integrity,” Baker reported in the assertion, which was posted on the department’s Facebook site. “We try just about every working day to make sure our officers are held to the maximum conventional and fulfill our established core values. We do not tolerate these steps as it erodes the general public believe in in our mission.”