Security guard linked to Alton police chief's company admits stealing wallet

McALLEN — A security guard employed by Alton’s suspended police chief was arrested Sunday for allegedly stealing a wallet at McAllen’s bus station this week, police said.

Antonio Carmona, 46, told police he was working the graveyard shift early Sunday morning at the city’s Central Station, 1501 W. Business 83, when he noticed a wallet resting on a counter inside the facility, according to a police affidavit in the case. Carmona said he found $800 cash inside the wallet, walked to the men’s restroom and pocketed the money.

A traveler eventually returned to the station and reported the wallet as lost, the record states. Police called Carmona to the scene to ask him about the apparent theft, but he initially lied about taking the money.

He confessed to the crime after officers showed him surveillance footage that incriminated him, according to the police affidavit. Carmona told investigators he took the money to his mother-in-law’s house in Pharr. He said he hid most of the money between the pages of a Bible and pocketed the rest.

McAllen police officials said the man wore a Rapid Security uniform during the alleged theft; however, public records don’t list Carmona, a Mexican citizen, as a current or former employee at the security company. The firm is the bus station’s sole private security provider.

Rapid Security owners Baldemar Flores — Alton’s police chief — and his wife did not return several messages left Tuesday and Wednesday with employees at their business.

The couple and their security company were in the news earlier this year when Flores was suspended from his job in September after being charged with public lewdness stemming from amorous activities with an apparent mistress.

Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra later told The Monitor Flores could lose the ability to continue working at his private security company if Guerra’s office prosecutes the public lewdness case against the police chief.

Then it came to light that a security guard who admitted to killing his wife and another man last month using his service weapon had been hired by Flores’ company despite being a convicted felon. The guard was no longer working for Rapid Security at the time of the double-slaying.

Rapid Security hired Juan Huerta in May 2008, public records show.

Flores’ wife, Yolanda Flores, told The Monitor Huerta was terminated immediately after the company received the results of a criminal background check.

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Ana Ley covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4428.