Cops: Man sold church equipment for scrap

Cops arrested a Franklin Square ex-convict on a burglary charge, two weeks after he allegedly stole metal from a nearby church's maintenance equipment and later sold the stolen goods for scrap, Nassau County police said.

The ex-convict, Raymond Henry, 42, is accused of stealing the balance arms off a Genie-brand lift, a scissor-style device that hoists workers in a bucket, sometime between 9 p.m. on March 15 and 9 a.m. on March 16 from St. Catherine of Sienna Church on New Hyde Park Road in Franklin Square.

He then sold the metal at a recycler in New Hyde Park.

It's unclear what evidence led detectives from the Elmont-based Fifth Squad to arrest Henry on Friday.

At an arraignment Saturday, Henry was jailed on $40,000 bond or $20,000 cash, according to court records. It wasn't clear whether he had yet posted bail. He's due back in court April 3.

Prison records show Henry served a 4-to-12-year sentence for a Nassau County robbery and was paroled in December 2005. Details about the case, which dates to at least 1994 if not earlier, were not immediately available.