UK COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM CHURCH RECOVERED Pasco: About the hot computers in your house, Mom ...:

About the hot computers in your house, Mom ...

By CAMILLE C. SPENCER
Published January 24, 2007


Rory McGrory proved his ingenuity in November when he used a metal can lid to cut through a tent, dig under a fence and escape from the Land O'Lakes jail.

He was caught a few days later and sent back to jail.

Then the career criminal made a big mistake, deputies say.

McGrory, 43, wrote a jailhouse letter to his mother, telling her that he stashed a few stolen computers in her house and she might want to get rid of them, deputies say.

Deputies intercepted the letter, and now McGrory faces a new charge of grand theft.

"We wouldn't have known about the computers if he hadn't written the letter," said Doug Tobin, spokesman for the Sheriff's Office.

McGrory started the Dec. 26 letter, written in cursive on notebook paper, sending holiday wishes to his mother, Mary Ann Partin. Then he warned her of the condition of her house, where he'd been staying between trips to jail.

"The house is going to be a mess and there will be no food there for you to eat when you get home except maybe popcorn," the letter says.

Then he alerted her to the loot:

"You will find two HOT computers in your house neither of them are usable because they are password protected. Please dispose of them or sell them for $5 apiece at your yard sale."

He added: "You really should have a yard sale."

Sheriff's deputies, who routinely read jail correspondence, intercepted McGrory's letter before it was sent. They called his parents, who allowed their house to be searched.

Both computers were recovered.

Serial numbers traced them to Suncoast Baptist Church, 4726 State Road 54 in New Port Richey, which had reported the computers stolen the day after an Oct. 17 break-in.

The letter never made it to McGrory's mother. It's evidence now.

It ends with more apologies and well wishes.

"I hope all is well with you and Charlie," McGrory wrote. "I love you both, but I just can't write anymore. With love, your son Rory."

Camille C. Spencer can be reached at 727 869-6229 or mailto:cspencer@sptimes.com.%3C/p%3E

[Last modified January 23, 2007, 23:29:04]