EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Court documents reveal that for 40 years a southern Indiana man stole thousands of rounds of ammunition from a naval depot without anyone being the wiser. It wasn’t until he was caught watching child porn in a Wendy’s that the dominos began to fall and his nearly half-century scheme at last was thrust into the light.

Timothy Guy, 76, of Martin County, was recently sentenced to five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm and ammunition as a convicted felon, receiving stolen U.S. government property and possession of child sexual abuse material.

Court documents reveal that for 40 years — from 1966 to 2004 — Guy was employed as an explosives handler at the Crane Army Ammunition Activity, a United States military installation located within Naval Support Activity Crane, which is southwest of Bloomington and contains ammunition depots.

Unbeknownst for decades, Guy lied to his superiors by falsifying documents to make it appear as if ammunition had been destroyed while in reality, Guy had smuggled it out of the facility and stockpiled it at home.

Over the course of his time at Crane, Guy smuggled more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition out of the facility along with five firearms, including three rifles and two pistols.

But Guy’s ammunition theft scheme was only uncovered because of a completely different crime, court documents reveal. In 2018, Guy was caught viewing child sexual abuse material in a Wendy’s restaurant, utilizing the free Wi-Fi to watch the illicit child porn in a public space.

After being found guilty of his 2018 child porn crime, Guy’s hidden ammunition stash continued to remain undiscovered by authorities until 2021 when a community corrections officer found Guy was in possession of an unregistered computer during a routine sex offender check. Guy reportedly admitted he used the unregistered computer to continue indulging in sex abuse videos of children, possessing flash drives that were filled with the illicit material.

A search of Guy’s home by the Martin County Sheriff’s Department uncovered 60 flash drives and 875 storage disks that contained over 250,000 images of children under the age of 12.

But also uncovered in the search was a cellar door. When deputies looked in the cellar, they at last found the stockpiles of stolen ammunition and stolen firearms — finally bringing to light thefts from the naval depot that had remained undiscovered for more than half a century.

“Undeterred by a prior conviction, the defendant possessed an enormous number of images of the most horrendous traumas inflicted upon countless innocent children, collected over many years, involving countless victims,” said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana Zachary A. Myers.

“Even worse,” Myers continued, “He abused the position he was entrusted with to help keep our country safe, and instead stole an enormous quantity of deadly ammunition, despite being a convicted felon and forever barred by law from having guns or ammunition.”

As part of Guy’s sentence, he was ordered to serve six years on probation following his release from federal prison. Guy will also have to register as a sex offender.