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ANN wrote:So THAT'S Where My Engine Went
EAA Member Arrested For Stripping Seneca To Build His Own Plane

It started when Jerry Dwyer's Piper Seneca lost an engine over Iowa. He landed safely at Waterloo Airport and parked the plane -- for five years -- while he looked for a replacement engine.

Last year, Dwyer noticed something... well... odd.

While checking on his 1973 Seneca, he noticed an engine and propeller missing (presumably the engine that wasn't blown). Later, he found the aircraft sitting on wooden pallets -- the landing gear was gone. Then the autopilot went missing. Then other components -- seats, radios and the entire instrument panel -- just flat out disappeared.

At some point, Dwyer apparently became suspicious. He called police.

Tuesday, police arrested 48-year old John Nocero of Cedar Falls, IA -- an officer in the EAA's Waterloo chapter -- charging him with first-degree theft. Investigators think Nocero ransacked Dwyer's Seneca and planned to use the parts in the Mustang II he was building.

Nocero is listed on EAA Chapter 227's web site as the chapter's secretary.

Dwyer said his Seneca was severely damaged when the parts were removed. "He chopped a hole in the side of the damn thing to get the autopilot out. He's basically ruined the airplane," Dwyer told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.

Court records indicated Nocero admitted stealing Dwyer's landing gear. Nocero couldn't be reached for comment. He was released from the Black Hawk County jail pending trial. If convicted on the first degree theft charge, he could spend the next ten years in prison.

ANN wrote:Guilty Plea Turned Down In Airplane Stripping Case Suspects Says He Thought Aircraft Was Abandoned

He wanted to plead guilty... but everything he said sounded like a case for innocence. That's the reasoning an Iowa judge used this week in failing to accept a guilty plea from John Nocero, the man accused of first degree theft for stripping parts off a disabled Piper Seneca to use for his own plane.

Nocero, a member and past officer of local EAA chapter, is accused of taking $10,000 worth of parts off the Seneca -- which, as was reported in Aero-News, was left at Waterloo Regional Airport (ALO) after an emergency landing five years ago, while owner Jerry Dwyer attempted to find a replacement engine for the stricken twin.

Dwyer became suspicious when he noticed parts of his aircraft were missing -- first an engine and propeller, then the landing gear, seats, autopilot... and then the radios, followed by the entire instrument panel.

Nocero admits he took some parts -- the engine, and the landing gear -- but he told Judge George Stigler he believed the aircraft had been abandoned, after tracing the Seneca's N-number back to now-defunct Dwyer Air.

Nocero also stated he had received permission to remove the equipment from an employee at Livingston Aviation, where the plane had sat -- an assertion Stigler told Nocero many dispute, according to the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier.

"I returned everything I took," Nocero told the judge, after police investigators approached him and said the Seneca's owner wanted the equipment returned. He added he then stopped removing further parts from the aircraft, as well.

With the court's denial of the guilty plea, Nocero's case returned to the court docket for a future trial. Meanwhile, airport officials just want the Seneca removed from the field.

Aviation Director Brad Hagen told the Courier the airport has been asking the owner to remove the Piper Seneca from its property for a number of years, after Livingston Air removed the airplane from its hangar in 2002 following a dispute with the owner.

Waterloo Regional has sent the owner several notices, according to Hagen, including one demanding the aircraft be removed by December. The airport then granted an extension due to the owner's
ill health, calling for the Seneca to be removed within the next 10
days to two weeks.