SEATTLE – A federal worker based out of San Diego took illegal perks from his job – including a plane, yachts and heavy-duty trucks, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

Steven Bradley Smith, a field technician with the Federal Aviation Administration in San Diego, abused an internal computer system to claim surplus items from other government agencies, according to documents unsealed in federal court in Tacoma.

“There's a great concern about who knew what about this – about whether it's something that was systemic, or one guy who managed to find the seam in the zone defense of the FAA,” Assistant U.S. Attorney David Jennings told The Associated Press.

Smith has worked at an FAA office in San Diego since at least March 2006, according to the criminal complaint. An FAA spokesman said the job of a field technician is to maintain agency equipment.

The computer system is run by the General Services Administration and designed to allow federal agencies to list items they no longer need, so that other agencies can acquire them for free. Prosecutors said Smith should not have been authorized to acquire items, but managed to anyway – purportedly on behalf of the FAA – using another agency's code number.

Among the 215 items Smith obtained since 2004 were a Cessna 210 from the Forest Service, a Boston Whaler from the Coast Guard, several computers, and a 44-foot Navy sailing yacht that had been used by the Reserve Officer Training Corps at the University of Washington, the charging documents said.

Investigators said they determined that Smith turned the Navy yacht, a fiberglass yawl called the Lively, over to his half-brother, Bradley Garner, who took it to Canada, where it remains. He also gave Garner the Cessna. Even though the plane remained owned by the government, Garner managed to take out an insurance policy – and received a $45,000 payment when the plane was damaged in a storm while parked at a Louisiana airport in 2007.

The Boston Whaler was found on a trailer in front of Smith's home in Blue Jay, in San Bernardino County, along with a boat previously used by the Border Patrol, said an affidavit filed by Christopher M. Bjornstad, a special agent with the GSA's inspector general.

Smith and Garner, who owns Royal Limousine Service in Bermuda Dunes, Calif., are both charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and theft of honest services.

Smith made an initial appearance Thursday in federal court in Santa Ana, and was ordered to post a $200,000 bond before he could be released on electronic home monitoring, Jennings said.

Garner was scheduled for a detention hearing Friday. A public defender who represented Garner at his initial appearance, Joan Politeo, was out of the office Thursday afternoon and did not return a message seeking comment.

Smith's activity came to the attention of the GSA when someone in the Transportation Department reported he had been using their code number to try to claim the Lively early this year. Investigators allowed him to continue the practice to build a case against him, the court documents say. The Lively episode is the reason charges were filed in the Western District of Washington.

It's unclear how Smith allegedly obtained the items – from all around the country – while keeping his day job.

Jennings said the government would try to reclaim its property – if it can find it.

---