California Scam Artist, A Neshaminy Grad, Nabbed By Local Police

Middletown and Newtown authorities assisted California law enforcement officials in taking a wanted Neshaminy High School graduate into custody.

Steven Kunes, 59, a Langhorne native, was wanted for failing to report to California probation officials after he was released from prison in June. He was convicted in California on a  theft by false pretense charge when he accepted funds for a Hollywood movie project that did not exist, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.

Kunes recently fooled the Bucks County Courier Times when they published an article where the 59 year old claimed he was working on a Netflix series called “Over My Dead Body.” The alleged series included A-list celebrities and was said to be filming throughout Bucks County. After publication, the newspaper published that they discovered that Kunes had lied about the project. A correction noted a Netflix representative denied Kunes was involved in any series they were producing.

The article and social media posts led Santa Barbara sheriff deputies to find Kunes in Bucks County, where his parents still reside.

Kunes was nabbed last week when he went to pickup a package from a post office, sheriffs said. The exact location of the post office where the arrest was made was not released.

Kunes made headlines in the 1980s when at 26 years old he attempted to sell People Magazine a fabricated article on reclusive author J.D. Salinger, who wrote the book,  “The Catcher in the Rye.” The article was never published but gained attention when Salinger sued Kunes. The case was later settled.

“It has come to my attention that one Steven Kunes has been impersonating me through forged writings, has signed my name to forged letters, has prepared and circulated letters on false letterhead which he has claimed were sent out by me, has offered for sale at least one completely fictitious ‘interview’ with me which grossly misrepresents both my character and my outlook on life, attributes opinions to me that I do not hold, attempts to copy my prose mannerisms and altogether tries to pass off as real an interview that never took place,” Salinger told the court, according to a Washington Post Article from 1982.

In 2012, Kunes cut off his electronic monitoring device and mailed it to the Santa Barbara jail. In response, the sheriff’s department posted Kunes photo to Facebook. A Facebook user later saw the photo and tipped police off to Kunes location in 2012.

Kunes also submitted plagiarized works in recent years to several California publications, including Noozhawk, a report states. 

Kunes is being held in the Bucks County Correctional Facility until he can be extradited to Santa Barbara County.

Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.