Hot on Facebook

Guy Buys $123 Safe on eBay, Finds $26,000 Inside Seller tries to get half the cash back, fails »

Obama CIO Stole Shirts From JC Penney

Kundra comes across as 'petty thief with bad taste in clothes'

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 19, 2009 8:12 AM CDT

(Newser) – Days ago, it emerged that President Obama’s Chief Information Officer once pleaded guilty to theft; now the Business Insider comments on what Vivek Kundra stole: $134 worth of JC Penney shirts. “At an average of $33.50 a pop, they weren't even nice shirts, even in 1996 dollars” Eric Krangel writes. According to the police report, it took a “brief foot chase” to catch Kundra.

Kundra’s shoplifting isn’t a “youthful indiscretion,” as the administration put it, Owen Thomas writes at Gawker. “It's a signal note of Kundra's character—the foolish thought that something can be had for nothing.”

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (1)]

Customers walk by a J.C. Penney store in Peabody, Mass. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Vivek Kundra. (DC Office of the Chief Technology Officer)

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

Is there some backstory about how Vivek was dead broke? Because right now, we not only think Vivek is a petty thief, we think he's a petty thief with bad taste in clothes. - Eric Krangel

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

To report an error on this story, notify our editors.

More Newser Stories

Obama Aide on Leave After DC Raids

Computer chief isn't charged, but his old office is involved

(AP) - President Obama's new computer chief is on leave after the FBI raided his old DC government office and arrested a city employee and a technology consultant on corruption charges, a White House official said. Vivek Kundra has not been charged, and he does not appear to be a target of the investigation. But because he led the office, he's on leave until further details of the case become known. More»

Bribery Sting Nets Employee of Obama Tech Appointee

Vivek Kundra not linked to DC investigation: FBI

(NEWSER) - FBI agents raided the office of the District of Columbia’s chief technology officer today as part of a federal bribery investigation, WTOP-AM reports. The FBI arrested an employee of the agency and a private contractor who has received several hundred thousand dollars in city contracts. Vivek Kundra, President Obama’s choice for chief information officer, headed the DC office before leaving last week and is not linked to the investigation, authorities say. More»

US Drones Return to Hit Rescuers, Funerals

Strikes occurring every 4 days under Obama: report

(NEWSER) - A few days back, President Obama said that US drone attacks in Pakistan had "not caused a huge number of civilian casualties." But a Bureau of Investigative Journalism report finds that somewhere between 282 and 535 civilians, including 60 children, have been "credibly reported" killed in the campaign. Secondary strikes target groups of rescuers shortly after attacks, while other drones have killed dozens at funerals. Obama has drastically escalated the drone program; some 260 strikes have occurred an average of once every four days under his administration. More»

Geithner: Obama Won't Ask Me to Stay

Treasury secretary says he's done after election

(NEWSER) - Tim Geithner is pretty sure he's going to be joining the ranks of the jobless after the election: The Treasury secretary—the longest serving member of President Obama's economic team—tells Bloomberg that Obama is "not going to ask me to stay on, I’m pretty confident. I’m confident he’ll be president. But I’m also confident he’s going to have the privilege of having another secretary of the Treasury." The White House announced in August that Geithner would stay put through the election, amid Beltway rumblings that he would step down. More»

Obama Losing Super PAC War

...because he's not terribly interested in fighting it

(NEWSER) - Democrats saw the way Mitt Romney's super PAC destroyed Newt Gingrich in Iowa, and it terrified them, because President Obama's super PAC—or as Politico terms it, "not-so-super PAC"—doesn't have the muscle for anything like that. "It's like when China got the bomb," says one Democrat close to the PAC, "We thought we were the ones with cash supremacy. That's clearly not the case." Obama's Priorities USA Action has just $5 million in the bank, less than half Romney's $12 million. More»

NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS

What is Newser?

Face it: there's too much news. At Newser, we choose the most thought-provoking and entertaining stories from hundreds of US and international sources and reduce them to a headline, picture, and two paragraphs. And we do it 24/7—you can come back morning, noon, night (and in between) for something new that matters. Read less, know more.

Learn more »

Partnering with: Slate

View Newser on the mobile website

Obama CIO Stole Shirts From JC Penney