SALEM, Ohio — A West Virginia man is facing felony charges after the theft of a grand champion bacon at Cameron High School in Marshall County.
According to the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office, Cody J. Lucey, of Glen Easton, West Virginia, was caught on surveillance video switching tags from the grand champion bacon with that of another student’s.
The investigation began after high school principal Wyatt O’Neil learned that Student A’s bacon had been sold by Student B at the West Virginia FFA State Ham, Bacon and Egg Show and Sale on March 10 at Cedar Lakes Conference Center, in Ripley, West Virginia.
Student A’s bacon was named grand champion at the Marshall County Sale a week earlier on March 4 and sold for $935.28. The bacon was then returned to the school for cutting for the buyer.
The agriculture teacher at the school was sorting through the bacon sold and found that two pieces were incorrectly tagged as they had both come from the same side of the hog.
Further investigation led the principal and a deputy sheriff to review the March 7 surveillance footage from the school’s meat lab. The video showed Lucey — Student B’s father — removing Student A’s grand champion bacon from the sold box and placing it on a table. He then removed the tag from the grand champion bacon, found a replacement bacon from the meat lab and put Student A’s tag on the spare bacon. Lucey then returned the swapped bacon to the sold box and tagged Student A’s bacon with Student B’s tag, according to the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office.
Consequently, Student B showed the swapped bacon at the state sale and won grand champion. The stolen bacon was then sold at the auction for $2,100.
Lucey was arrested March 19 by the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office on felony charges of obtaining money, property, and services by false pretenses and petit larceny. He pleaded not guilty and was released after posting a $3,000 bond. Lucey will have a preliminary hearing May 2.
