Owner of burnt-down Maryland crab shack accused of stealing equipment, bushels of crabs

BALTIMORE - The owner of a burnt-down Maryland crab shack was arrested for allegedly stealing equipment and at least 10 bushels of live crabs from several different crab shacks throughout Cecil County and Delaware.

Some of the stolen equipment and crabs were found during a search Sunday at the home of Zac Bennett, who owned Zac's Crab Shack, which went up in flames on July 8 on Route 213 south of Elkton.

Bennett was taken into custody and awaits extradition to Delaware. An accomplice is still at large and has yet to be identified.

On July 31, the Cecil County Sheriff's Office was called to investigate a theft from K&A Crabs on Old Chestnut Road.

"Basically everything that was outside equipment-wise, so all of our pots, our burners that we had sitting out there, he had taken," said K&A Crabs owner Alyson Getty.

The sheriff's office says Maryland and Delaware state police investigated similar crimes, with Bennett identified in all of them.

WJZ spoke with Bennett before arrest

WJZ spoke with Bennett last month when he was trying to raise money to reopen his business. 

He said he was sorting crabs from his backyard and doing mobile deliveries and was trying to raise enough money to make ends meet and to have a food truck at a new location.

"The landlord doesn't want us back there," Bennett told WJZ. "I guess he wants to do something else with it. We were there for 25 years."

Lied about insurance

Greg Kauffman, owner of Sarge's Bait and Tackle Shop, and Bennett's former landlord, said he originally rented out the building behind his house to Bennett's father for his deer butcher shop, but Bennett started selling crabs there last year.

"I required insurance because I was worried he was going to burn my building down, but I guess that fell on deaf ears," Kauffman said.

Kauffman woke up to an explosion at Zac's Crab Shack around 4 a.m. on July 8.

"It rocked my house," Kauffman said. "When I looked out my window, there was flaming debris all over my yard, in the trees, on my truck, everywhere."

Kauffman said he learned from investigators that Bennett ran an extension cord through a door, for the chest freezer, which wore it down and sparked the fire, causing the propane tanks inside to explode. 

Bennett also lied about having insurance, leaving Kauffman to deal with more than $100,000 in damage.

Bennett was "begging for money"

Kauffman said the building was still smoldering when he saw that Bennett posted a GoFundMe page.

"He was begging for money to rebuild somewhere, made people assume it was his building that he lost, and was trying to buy a food trailer and raise $30,000," Kauffman said. "Meanwhile, he was out stealing people's crabs."

Kauffman says he's grateful for the investigators.

"I figured when they finally locked him up I was going to celebrate," Kauffman said. "But I haven't had a chance to do that yet. My phone has been ringing off the hook."