Police unsure why two men were stealing flour in Port of Albany

A flour company employee from Ghent and a truck driver from Massachusetts have been arrested, charged with stealing large pallets of flour from a milling company at the Port of Albany, Albany Police announced Friday.

Forty-five-year old Franklin Johnson of Ghent and 42-year-old David Barna, a bakery truck driver from Holyoke, Mass., are accused of stealing over 150 bags of flour from Horizon Milling early Thursday morning. The flour was valued at $1,957.

Police say authorities from Horizon Milling became suspicious after their flour pallet inventories started showing shortages of 2,000 to 5,000 bags over the past several months.

They eventually resorted to surveillance and discovered Johnson would load up Barna's truck with an extra pallet of flour each time he came to the warehouse for a pickup.

Then early Thursday morning, Johnson and Barna were seen loading the truck with extra flour that was not on the purchase order.

Police were called, and the two men were taken into custody without incident.

Representatives from Horizon Milling say they believe Johnson and Barna may be behind tens of thousands of dollars worth of flour that has been unaccounted for in the past several months.

Police say it's still unclear what the men were doing with the flour once they stole it, but are continuing to investigate.

Johnson and Barna were arraigned in Albany City Criminal Court.