Former AF museum collections chief convicted Published Aug. 20, 2004 DAYTON, Ohio (AFPN) -- Scott Ferguson, 44, was found guilty of two crimes connected with the theft of a Peacekeeper armored car from the U.S. Air Force Museum at nearby Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.Mr. Ferguson is the former collections chief at the museum -- the third highest position in Air Force Museum management. A federal grand jury indicted him in February 2003 charging him with one count of transporting a stolen vehicle across state lines from Aug. 1 to 10, 1998, and one count of selling a stolen vehicle July 11, 1999. Each count carries a maximum punishment of 10 years imprisonment. U.S. District Judge Walter Herbert Rice set Mr. Ferguson's sentencing for Oct. 29.Mr. Ferguson pleaded "no contest" to the two charges and was found guilty by Judge Rice.The indictment identifies the vehicle as a 1980 two-door Cadillac-Gage "Peacekeeper" Armored Car. Mr. Ferguson became the museum's collections chief in March 1995, according to a statement of facts filed with the plea. In July 1996, he convinced superiors at the museum that the Peacekeeper vehicle had been requested by another military facility.Mr. Ferguson hid the vehicle in a facility in Middletown, Ohio. He took the Peacekeeper to military conventions in Tennessee and Pennsylvania in 1997 and 1998 and ultimately sold it in 1999 for $18,000. The vehicle was resold to its current owner, the sheriff's office in Cherokee County, N.C., in May 2000 for $38,000."Ferguson used his position of authority and detailed knowledge of the inner workings of the museum to commit these crimes," said Gregory Lockhart, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. "The facts show that he abused his position of public trust."