Former Congressional Employee Indicted for Allegedly Stealing 240 Cell Phones

A former congressional employee has been arrested and indicted for allegedly stealing 240 cell phones. Christopher Southerland, 43, was apprehended and charged on Jan. 9 for allegedly stealing the government cell phones, worth more than $150,000, from the House of Representatives, according to a Department of Justice news release. From around April 2020 to July 2023, Southerland was a system administrator for the House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, according to the Justice Department. In his position, he was allowed to order cell phones for committee staff members. The department said that between January 2023 and May 2023, Southerland used his position to order 240 cell phones to his home in Maryland. There were around 80 committee staff members during that period. Southerland sold more than 200 of the cell phones to a pawn shop nearby....