A/C installer, accused of $34K theft from temple, is arrested

Ellenbogen

WEST PALM BEACH — Nearly five years after disappearing once a $34,000 check from a synagogue cleared, a Juno Beach man has been arrested on charges of grand theft.

City police have had an o pen warrant on Adam Barsky, 41, since January 2014. He was arrested Tuesday.

In June 2013, Barsky and his company, ADS Air LLC, won a bid to provide an air-conditioning unit for Temple Beth El on North Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach. Barsky, whom temple leaders said had done work for them before, said he would need a 50 percent deposit to get started — $34,000, according to city police.

Barsky told temple leaders he could start installation in September. He cashed the deposit check in July and in September told them the unit had arrived and was in a warehouse, according to an arrest report. But Barsky gave temple members multiple excuses for why he could not install the unit.

On Nov. 6 of that year, temple members contacted West Palm Beach police and said installation had not started, according to the report. Police said they tried to contact Barsky three times that month and could not reach him.

A code enforcement officer told West Palm Beach investigators that Barsky and ADS Air LLC had not taken out any permits to work for the temple, the arrest report said.

ADS Air LLC became inactive in September 2014, according to state business records.

Marilyn Comiter, Temple Beth El’s co-president when Barsky was chosen, said Thursday it would be great if the temple could get back some of the money they gave him.

“Being a religious institution, you trust people and hope they’re going to be doing what they’re supposed to,” she said.

On We d nesday, Judge Dina Keever-Agrama set Barsky’s bail at $10,000, and he was released from the Palm Beach County Jail later that day.

An attempt to reach Barsky for comment was unsuccessful.