Cashing In

By the time you read this, Charles Holtzclaw may already have been arrested. He is accused of stealing anywhere between $130,000 and $160,000 from his employer, Howard Lumber.

Two things make this crime interesting. One: Holtzclaw happens to be the young man Donnie Smith tried to help out of a drunk and disorderly at Wild Wing one Friday night during campaign season. Two: As a salesman for the company, he was selling building materials to contractors at a deep discount, but only if they paid him in cash. He claimed the owner liked to be paid in cash.

Now, that leaves a lot of contractors on the hook. They must have known that’s not the way Howard Lumber does business. Consequently, they will not only be asked to pay for the materials again, but, in an interesting twist for homes built with stolen lumber, a lien could theoretically be put on the house until the price of the materials is paid in full.

Insiders say Holtzclaw was partying with the stolen loot and gambled most of it away. He is definitely looking at time behind bars and restitution.

In another case of stolen money in Columbia County, the law enforcement community is baffled that a neighborhood association would be so blind and naïve as to give one person access to the bank account with no checks or balances. When asked if an audit had been performed routinely as is standard procedure, they said it had. Received, reviewed and paid for… by Laurie Vanover, the lady who confessed to stealing around $200,000. Unlike Charles, Insiders speculate she will get off with no jail time.

In both of these instances, the wounded parties — the lumber company and the neighborhood association — took action. Sure, we’ll hear stories for a while and those in charge will sweat for a bit, but then it will be over and forgotten, which is drastically different than the approach taken by others in town, who never seem to be rid of the questions or the doubt.You Might Also Like: