Downstate worker sold scrap for office supplies

ALTON -- An Alton city worker has been suspended without pay for one month after apparently scrapping tons of metal from the city's wastewater plant, then using the money for office items.

Thirty-six-year-old Joel Schwaab also is accused of buying equipment in violation of city policies, but he isn't charged with any crime.

Schwaab says he was told a city procedure wasn't followed. He says he was wrong, he accepts the suspension and he's apologized.

Schwaab told investigators the scrap piles and junk inside a building at the wastewater site needed to be cleared out.

He used the money on items for the office, including a 26-inch flat-screen TV, global-positioning system, two printers, a laptop computer and a wireless keyboard.