Man charged with stealing audio equipment meant for President Biden’s Kansas City speech
A 36-year-old man is charged with a felony for allegedly stealing audio equipment owned by the federal government that was meant to amplify President Joe Biden’s speech in Kansas City on Wednesday.
Jason P. Keith, of Grandview, is accused of stealing valuables estimated to be worth $14,000, according to court records. The items were reported stolen Tuesday morning by an employee with the Defense Information Systems Agency, which handles information sharing and communications for the Department of Defense.
According to court records, the theft took place in the underground parking garage of the Plaza’s Intercontinental Hotel at 401 Ward Parkway. Locks on the back of two U-Haul trucks parked there had been cut off and several things were missing from the containers, including a dolly, cable reels, extension cords, other sound equipment and a fall protection kit.
The theft was investigated by Kansas City police. Surveillance cameras owned by the city and other privately owned ones captured video of a suspect wearing black pants, black shoes and a long black coat. He was seen pushing a dolly filled with stolen equipment in the wee hours by those cameras as well as a security guard and two University of Missouri Kansas City police officers as he followed a route along Brush Creek, court records state.
Police officers later tracked the stolen equipment to the Shell gas station at 2601 Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard. Keith was arrested there Tuesday afternoon, roughly 12 hours after the theft occurred.
Police allegedly found some of the missing equipment in Keith’s possession. More was discovered in a wooded area behind the gas station.
The president visited Kansas City to promote a coming wave of new federal spending on highways, bridges and other priorities projects as part of an aim to rebuild the nation’s aging infrastructure. In his speech Wednesday, made at the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, Biden touted the new infrastructure law inked last month as “the most significant investment” in roads and bridges in 70 years.
The measure is ultimately expected to deliver $3.2 billion to Kansas and $7.9 billion to Missouri to address an array of needs, from transportation to water treatment to broadband internet.
Keith was charged in Jackson County Circuit Court on Tuesday. He is being held on $40,000 bond in the Jackson County Detention Center.
The Star’s Jonathan Shorman contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 9, 2021 at 8:17 PM.
