Coin Caper Suspect Not Quite Clever Enough

A man whom Glendale police called “one of the most intelligent criminals we’ve ever come in contact with” was charged Tuesday with neutralizing two sophisticated alarm systems and stealing $28,000 in quarters from a vending machine firm.

But when he was arrested, John William Adams, 39, of Covina declined the officers’ dubious praise.

“Thank you very much,” police investigator Harley Wing recalls Adams saying last Friday. “But I obviously wasn’t clever enough.”

Adams was charged with stealing the quarters from the Glendale headquarters of Glacier Water, which places purified water vending machines in front of supermarkets.

Although police say he confessed the crime during his arrest Friday, Adams pleaded not guilty to one count of burglary at his arraignment in Glendale Municipal Court on Tuesday. Bail was set at $10,000.

Glendale Police Sgt. Lief Nicolaisen said that immediately after the April 17 burglary was discovered police concluded that it had been an inside job. Investigators focused on Adams because his job application showed an extensive background in electronics that would have enabled him to neutralize the alarm systems.

“He knew exactly which wires to cut, and he also recognized there was a back-up alarm, and he knew how to disengage that also,” Wing said.

Nicolaisen said Adams had been employed by Glacier as a vending machine repair man for about a month before the burglary. He quit the Monday after the crime, telling his employer he had broken his arm in a motorcycle accident.

After his arrest, Adams told police he had done it “for the thrill,” Nicolaisen said.

According to police, Adams said that it had taken him and a companion nearly six hours to load the $28,000 in quarters, in 35-pound bags, into a van.

Wing said police recovered nearly $18,000 in bills in a hollowed out bedpost in Adams’ home.

Adams’ alleged accomplice, who is believed to have the rest of the money, is being sought.