Gambling Teacher Forced to Face the Music

Now and then the media will bring you tales of people who have opted to turn to crime in order to fund their gambling problems and I usually tend to ignore them. After all, the number of problem gamblers is a minute percentage in proportion to the vast majority of leisure gamblers who truly enjoy this pastime. However, sometimes these tales catch my eye and I thought I’d share the latest one with you.

A 26 year old teacher was recently arrested after he tried to pawn musical instruments that he stole from his school and his students in order to fund his gambling habits. James Alan Morris from DeLand used to work as a chorus guitar teacher at University High in Orange City. A month ago, he was arrested for trying to pawn at least fourteen different music instruments that were stolen from students he taught and the school’s music room. He was charged with dealing in fourteen counts of stolen property.

The disappearance of the musical instruments was a mystery to the school who couldn’t understand how so many items could disappear at once. Their first lead came after someone turned up at their offices, asking to have school-related software from a laptop that he said he had bought in a nearby pawn shop. The school started investigating and realized that a laptop – the same one brought to their offices – was one that was missing from their premises. After looking back in their records, school administrators found that the teacher had checked out the computer, worth nearly $1,000, a while ago. It was later sold to the pawnshop, along with the rest of the stolen goods, and eventually bought by an innocent man for just over $200.

All in all, Morris pawned eight guitars, two violins, a digital camera, a camcorder and the laptop. He spread his heist among five different pawnshops in the region.

The school’s suspicions were confirmed when Morris was called to the school’s office, where he admitted that he had a gambling problem and resigned from his job. The next day, the police were called in and he was arrested. Now that’s what I call being forced to face the music!