Employee faces charges for stealing from Carolina Cup after pay was docked, police say

Arrest warrants have been issued for a man who worked at the recent Carolina Cup Steeplechase event, and he is accused of stealing hundreds of pounds of copper wire and aluminum after his pay was docked, the Camden Police Department said.

Gregory Willis, 46, was hired as the sound coordinator for the annual horse racing event held on April 2 at Springdale Race Course, an incident report shows.

Carolina Cup Racing Association Director Toby Edwards told police that Willis was to be paid $12,500 for the event, with half up front and the rest following race day, according to the incident report.

After receiving his first installment of $6,250 weeks earlier, Willis showed up to the Carolina Cup asking for the second half of his pay before the work had been done, the incident report said.

Edwards told police he gave Willis another $300 in cash at the race.

But Willis didn’t get any more of the pay as things changed on race day.

Edwards said the “sound at the race was poor quality and eventually quit working,” according to the incident report. Because of the “terrible performance,” Edwards told police he decided not to pay Willis the remaining $5,950.

According to the incident report, Willis told Anna Conklin, an associate with the Carolina Cup, “I’m gonna have to steal something to make it back home!”

Edwards said something was stolen from the Camden track.

On April 4, Edwards saw that all of the speaker wire was missing from the race course, the incident report shows. Edwards told police there was no security working at the time of the theft.

Conklin thought Willis sold the stolen wire, and called Camden Steel & Metal to see if Willis had been there with the missing property, according to the incident report.

Her suspicions were confirmed when she was told that Willis had sold 246 pounds of copper wire and 4 pounds of aluminum to the recycling center, the incident report shows. There was surveillance footage at Camden Steel & Metal, per the incident report.

While the stolen metals were valued at $3,800, Willis received $258.75 for them, according to the incident report.

As of Thursday afternoon, Willis had not been arrested, police told The State. But he is facing breach of trust and obtaining money under false pretenses charges, according to police.

This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 2:18 PM.

Noah Feit

The State

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Noah Feit is a Real Time reporter with The State focused on breaking news, public safety and trending news. The award-winning journalist has worked for multiple newspapers since starting his career in 1999. Support my work with a digital subscription