Cops: Descendant of prominent family stole guns to buy drugs

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A member of a prominent western New York family who founded a major artisans community is charged with stealing heirlooms, including guns, and selling them to buy heroin.

Police in East Aurora say 22-year-old Megan Hubbard-Riley and her boyfriend took 13 handguns and other valuables from her the home of her mother, Mary Hubbard, over six months. Officers say one of the guns was used in a shooting in Buffalo last week.

Mary Hubbard is a granddaughter of Elbert Hubbard, who at the end of the 19th century founded the Roycroft artisan community as a cradle of the arts and crafts movement in East Aurora.

Hubbard-Riley was arrested June 20 following an investigation that began when her mother reported the theft of the 13 antique and modern handguns from her home. She then discovered numerous other items had been taken, East Aurora Police Detective Patrick Welch said, including a 2-carat diamond ring, Roycroft literature, an antique coffee pot, leather goods and other valuables that together were worth more than $50,000.

The investigation led to Hubbard-Riley and her 36-year-old boyfriend, John Lawandus, both of whom lived with Hubbard and abused drugs, the detective said.

"They were stealing things they knew to be valuable in order to get fast cash to feed their [heroin]addiction," Welch said.

Hubbard-Riley and John Lawandus are charged with grand larceny. The arrests were first reported by The Buffalo News on Wednesday.