Montgomery Township Police. Photo by James Short.
A Massachusetts man has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $9,000 while attending a wedding in Montgomery Township last summer.
Court records show 69-year-old Richard Leone, of Southbridge, pleaded guilty last week to one felony count of theft by unlawful taking. In exchange, prosecutors dropped the additional felony count of receiving stolen property, court records show.
Leone remains free on $10,000 unsecured bail while awaiting sentencing.
According to charging documents, Richard Leone, 68, of Charlton, Mass., who was a friend of the groom’s mother, accompanied her and her grandchild home from the wedding about 11:30 p.m. on July 21, 2023. She told police she took the grandchild to bed and asked Leone to retrieve flowers and a large mirror from the car. Police say Leone told them he did so, but that he had no idea a wooden box containing gift cards for the couple also was in the back seat.
When the groom arrived home about 1:30 a.m., he called police to report he found debris at the side of his driveway which turned out to be the wooden box with several opened cards, according to the documents.
The next morning, as police returned to follow up the investigation, a neighbor turned over security footage showing Leone at the site of the theft, according to the report. Leone again denied knowing about the box, but when he allowed the groom to search his truck, the groom found a scented trash bag containing wedding cards inside a cargo compartment under a rear floor mat, according to police, who said Leone then denied knowing how it got there.
Police said security footage showed multiple visits by Leone to his truck during the night, which he said were to bring in other items from the wedding and to find his cell phone, which was located on the kitchen table.
The value of the recovered cash and checks was $9,140.
