Ex-House staffer's cell phone heist exposed after eBay buyer boots up stolen device: DOJ

A former IT staffer for a prominent House of Representatives committee has been arrested and charged with a scheme in which he allegedly rigged the federal procurement process to steal around 240 government-issued cell phones.

The arrest of 43-year-old Christopher Southerland of Glen Burnie, Maryland, was announced on Monday by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia under Trump appointee and former Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro.

"According to the government’s evidence, from approximately April 2020 until July 2023, Southerland worked as a system administrator for the House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. As a system administrator, Southerland was authorized to order cell phones for Committee staff members," said the statement. "From January 2023 through May 2023, Southerland allegedly used his position to cause 240 new government cell phones to be shipped directly to his home in Maryland. During that time, there were only approximately 80 staff members on the committee."

Per federal prosecutors, Southerland then sold more than 200 of those phones to a local pawn shop, instructing an employee there to dismantle the phones and sell them "in parts" so the government's remote device management software wouldn't detect anything was amiss.

"The scheme was first discovered when one of the phones that Southerland stole was sold whole on eBay to an uninvolved purchaser," said the statement. "When the purchaser first booted up the phone, the phone displayed a phone number for the House of Representatives Technology Service Desk. The purchaser called that number, and House employees soon discovered that several phones purchased by Southerland were unaccounted for."

Congressional staffers sometimes end up in trouble with the law in spectacular ways. Last November, a former staffer for Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) was arrested for allegedly orchestrating an elaborate hoax in which she had herself zip-tied, cut up, and painted with anti-Trump hate messages to make it look as if liberals assaulted her.