A Former Harrisburg Mayor, A Vampire Hunting Kit & Criminal Charges
By Tony Romeo
HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) -- The man who ran Pennsylvania's capital city for almost three decades is facing almost 500 criminal charges in an alleged scheme that seems so bizarre it could have come from the imagination of a script writer.
The city of Harrisburg is buried under a mountain of debt and now former longtime Mayor Stephen Reed stands accused of running up that debt, in part, to amass a vast trove of artifacts and curiosities that he says were intended for museums he wanted to create. Instead, Deputy Attorney General Clarke Madden says many of those artifacts were found in the former mayor's possession.
"The assortment of things that we encountered in the mayor's private office and storage facility and in his home were staggering," he says. "This was a treasure house of items of every possible description."
And some items, Madden says, that defy description, such as a $65-hundred vampire hunting kit, complete with a mallet and wooden stake. In a statement, former Mayor Reed said he would vigorously fight the charges.
