Man gets prison time for stealing forest user fees

A fee collection site at Coconino National Forest near Flagstaff, Arizona. Photo: U.S. Forest Service

TUCSON, Ariz. — A California man has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for burglarizing user fee collections sites on the Coronado National Forest in southern Arizona.

Federal prosecutors said 51-year-old Brian Lisanti pleaded guilty to destroying government property by breaking the lock on a fee envelope collection tube on the Coronado National Forest near Safford.

Lisanti, of Weimar, also pleaded guilty to stealing more than $1,400 from a fee envelope collection tube on the Coronado National Forest near Green Valley in 2020.

Prosecutors said that between July and November of 2020, Lisanti committed at least 42 burglaries and took money at fee collection sites on national recreation lands in Arizona, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, Idaho and Utah.