A Hempfield man was arrested Sunday after police said he tried to extort the owner of $20,000 in savings bonds that he claimed he found, according to court papers.
Craig Alan Gordon, 35, is charged with theft by extortion, receiving stolen property and theft of lost property.
The situation was reported to North Huntingdon police Saturday by a woman who said she was contacted by Gordon on July 1 about the savings bonds, according to court papers. The woman said $20,000 in savings bonds were missing from her home, along with others belonging to her daughter.
Gordon told the woman through text messages that he found the bonds in a backpack at a home he claimed to have recently purchased and refused to accept $100 to return them to her, police said. Instead, he demanded $8,000 and later agreed to $6,000 to give them back, according to court papers.
When she balked about the money, Gordon told her he didn’t “need to hand them over,” township police wrote in court papers. Authorities reviewed the messages exchanged between the two.
They agreed to meet Sunday at 5 p.m. in a Hempfield parking lot to make the trade. Police said Gordon was taken into custody at the exchange point. It was unclear from court papers if he was in possession of the savings bonds at the time.
He is free on $25,000 bond. A July 28 preliminary hearing is set. Gordon did not have an attorney listed in online court records. A phone number for him was not working.
Gordon was sentenced to one year of probation on a drug possession charge in 2015, according to online court records.
