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Friday, January 20, 2017

Religious artifacts thief sentenced

An Ocean City man was sentenced last week to 16 years for a pair of second-degree burglary charges, one involving religious artifacts, along with five years for growing cannabis at his residence.

Thomas Palenchar, 41, was found guilty of breaking into the Jewish Center uptown on Coastal Highway, as well as the Greene Turtle uptown just prior to Christmas 2015.

The Ocean City Police Department was called to the Jewish Center’s storehouse at approximately 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 24, 2015. Responding officers reported finding a broken widow, a painting cut from its frame along with several broken plaques and statues. Also numerous religious artifacts had been removed.

The day before, managers at the Greene Turtle contacted police after they discovered an outside cooler had been pried open. After reviewing video footage from earlier that morning, a suspect matching Palenchar’s description was seen removing food and beverages.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

he was known as "dirty tom" back in the day mostly because he always had BO. He was very intelligent which is why i can't understand why he would want to serve as his own attorney.

Anonymous said...

16 years? isn't that a bit much for a burglary charge?