By Steven Henshaw | shenshaw@readingeagle.com | Reading Eagle

About 5:15 a.m. on Aug. 19, a box truck pulls into the yard of Morgan Truck Body, bypassing the check-in point for drivers at the Morgantown business, and is followed by an employee on a forklift who appeared to have been waiting above the yard for its arrival, according to investigators.

The Morgan employee, as later observed on security camera footage by company officials and a Caernarvon Township detective, hops off the forklift and opens the rear roll-up door of the Penske truck. He proceeds to load the truck with five diesel-powered cooling units designed to be installed on refrigerated trailers.

The employee, whom the company identified as Thomas J. Kaiser, was trained as a forklift operator but worked primarily behind a desk at the truck trailer manufacturer, his supervisor told police.

The entire sequence, company officials told the detective, took just a few minutes and wasn’t normal procedure. For one thing, they said, there appeared to be no communication between the employee and the driver, who drove off minutes after arriving.

Also, Morgan hardly ever loads box trucks. Regardless of the type of truck, drivers arriving for pickup must provide paperwork before being directed to back up to a loading dock for proper packing.

In the footage, Kaiser is seen haphazardly loading the units.

The events took place on a Friday. Kaiser arrived 30 minutes before his 5 a.m. shift began and “staged” the units in the yard, company officials told the detective, He left work about 8 a.m.—five hours early—and did not show up the following Monday, when he submitted his resignation electronically, according to the criminal complaint filed by Caernarvon Township police. By that time, officials discovered the theft of five cooling units valued at a combined total of $252,000, according to the complaint filed Wednesday by Detective Sgt. Chad Eberly.

When Eberly tried to reach Kaiser that Monday, he was referred to his lawyer.

On Wednesday, Eberly charged Kaiser, 37, Reiffton, with felony counts of conspiracy to commit theft by unlawful taking.

Kaiser of the 100 block of West 35th Street remained free to await a hearing after arraignment before District Judge Michael D. Kaufman in Birdsboro.

Eberly identified the driver as Kendra Lliteras, 30, of Reading. She was charged with the same offenses and remained free to await a hearing following her arraignment Wednesday night before District Judge Kyley L. Scott in Reading Central Court.

As of the filing, the equipment had not been recovered, investigators said.

https://www.readingeagle.com/2025/09/18/ex-employee-charged-in-252000-theft-of-equipment-at-southern-berks-business/