Atlanta taxpayers are on the hook for a former city worker’s drug-fueled theft spree.
   
On Thursday, a former city employee admitted that he carried out a drug-addicted theft spree in which he stole up to $450,000 in metals from water facilities. But restitution to the taxpayers will only cover a fraction of the city's losses.

According to the Atlanta Watershed Management Department, Jonathan MacDonald stole dozens of metal grates, solar panels and other materials from city facilities and pawned or sold the items as scrap. The spree ended when MacDonald was spotted driving away from a pumping station off Fulton Industrial Boulevard.

MacDonald now faces a two-year sentence for theft by a government employee and criminal trespass. His lawyer said he wanted the money to pay for his next hit, but she said he’s been drug-free since his release from jail on bond.

The city took a big loss.

“There were actually 64 metal gratings taken with a replacement cost of over $400,000 just for the metal gratings,” Senior Asst. Fulton County District Attorney Brad Malkin told Channel 2’s Richard Belcher.

Among the watershed sites MacDonald raided was a treatment plant off Monroe Drive in northeast Atlanta and the pumping station where he was spotted.

It will cost the city up to $450,000 to replace the lost materials, but MacDonald's court-ordered restitution only covers the cost of the value of the items on the day they were stolen, which is $35,000.

The judge who presided over MacDonald’s trial said investigators don’t believe he acted alone because the stolen items were too heavy, but MacDonald denied it.

“There's no one else involved.  Everything I did is by myself,” MacDonald said.

The city insists it won’t happen again.

“There's a whole new program for security at our facilities,” Watershed spokeswoman Janet Ward said.

With six months already spent in jail, MacDonald faces an 18-month prison sentence, followed by eight years on probation. He has 10 years to pay the restitution.