Ridgewood inspector admits to stealing $460,000 in quarters from village
As predicted by this blog
MARCH 19, 2014, 10:20 AM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 2014, 12:00 PM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
HACKENSACK — A Hawthorne man long employed as Ridgewood’s public works inspector was in court this morning to admit he actually stole nearly half a million dollars in quarters from the village.
Thomas Rica, 43, of Hawthorne, lost his job with the village in January of 2013 following his arrest for taking $500 in coins from Ridgewood’s meter collection room.
But a year-long investigation into his crime by Bergen County authorities revealed Rica, in fact, stole a much larger chunk of change from the village than initially thought.
Instead of hundreds, he took hundreds of thousands of dollars from Ridgewood, in quarter form.
Authorities claim Rica stole $460,000 in quarters from the village.
Rica, authorities said, took the 1.8 million quarters over the course of 25 months, by entering a room in Village Hall where collected parking meter quarters are stored and walking out with full pockets. –
But Village officials steadfastly refuse to offer any other payment option for meters and parking kiosks other than cash, thus making it easier for employees to continue helping themselves. There are so many security breaches in the collection process, none of which officials will admit to in public.
Shocking! And as expected, no comment from our illustrious mayor on the one thing he should be commenting about. What a joke Ridgewood is becoming. But, Roberta will fix everything, Paul promises.
Read further. He got no jail time and he is only repaying $200k. For stealing $460k????
Can I steal half a million dollars and give half of it back, too?
What makes this revelation even more alarming is that after the theft was discovered, there was only one change made to the coin collection and storage procedure, just one. Many others still exist leaving taxpayers sitting ducks for another massive theft. Paulie, are you awake?
Yet Village Engineer Christopher Rutishauser, Mr. Rica’s immediate supervisor at the time Rica was arrested, continues to recommend that the Village accept no form of payment at meters and parking kiosks other than cash. I wonder why?
love to know how he did it , the weight itself and then coveting the quarters in to something more usable ???
They said over 18 months so not 1.8 million quarters at once. But yeah, i was thinking too he must have formed a strange relationship at some bank that was taking all these quarters. Some teller should have reported something over the course of the 18 months he was doing this.
Perhaps he and someone at a bank had a financial partnership, and/or a love affair of some sort going. No explanation of where the money went thus far; his home in Hawthorne certainly did not recently have $460k in improvement done on it.
No jail time is absurd, you steal from almost any one else you go to jail. Only pay back half, where the hell is the punishment?
So we’re out $260K?!? That really is unbelievable, unless the Village insurance policy is picking up the rest. Oh, wait, aren’t we self insured?
This thief belongs in jail.
Maybe someone can forward the article to the IRS and get their commission when this crook gets nailed for Federal Income tax evasion.
Evading federal income taxes is jail time.
I agree with #12 – shouldn’t he have to pay income tax on the quarter million he gets to keep????
ALL: The linked article has been updated to reflect the fact that Rica is going to pay all of the stolen money back.
how can this be, he must of paid some one off, what a scam. and don’t tell me that no others new about this. bull shit. right ,right, come on .he is lucky that he did not meet big bubba . he would of never lasted in the joint.
He MUST make a lump sum payment and then pay $2,000.00 a month, try reading the article and comprehending what you read before you make dumb comments.
this makes all the one’s that put him in power look like the biggest jerks around, chris rutishauser , frank moritz , john spano , what were you dummy’s thing of.this fall’s on you. and only you. my god.you three should pay back the rest of the money.
So Rica is going to pay all the money back and that make it ok?
He’s a dirt bag make no mistake about it. But let me shed some light on jail time, incarceration is reserved for multi time offenders, or violent offenders, not thieves, junkies, and motor vehicle offenders. You can kill someone while drunken driving and still stand a chance at receiving probation. If you steal a lot of money from someone and pay it back, you can stay out of jail. The RWD cop who ripped off the PBA was an example. There was another cop in Ramsey who did the same thing but couldn’t pay the money back, he went to jail. This is the way it is in NJ.
I guess crime does pay
…and pay well.
He starts by repaying a lump sum, then $2000/mo. for 5 years–eventually all of it. In nickels, maybe?
Record article says:
“Under his plea agreement, **Rica will return the entire amount over the course of his probation,** which will run five years, court officials said. Rica will make an initial lump sum down payment, followed by $2,000 a month to the village for five years, under the deal’s terms, which were set by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office.”
Isn’t this the second time a Village of Ridgewood employee was arrested for stealing parking meter revenue?
this guy was a good bull shit teller. this is one for the books. he had a set of balls.
how dumb can someone be.if he was smart stay out of ridge wood.
Crime does pay in NJ. I’ve had employees steal $75k in cash, get caught the next day, no money returned, pit clears record, restitution ordered but never paid. NJ court system is a joke.
If this went down in PA they would face 20 years in state pen…
To # 16 no no no , all these comments are not dumb just so very true. He is very lucky that he is not in jail. And he knows it. I think he should get community service for the five years. I would make him clean and paint all the meters in town. They could use it.
I wonder who ever else new about this. some one had to see this.( a friend ) or family member .
Quarter boy fits him just fine.
Don’t they know how much money the meters are supposed to bring in? If so, how come it took almost half a million dollars missing before someone knew???
yes so true. who is in charge of the money.
My thoughts, exactly. He took the money over a 2 year period. Someone in finance didn’t notice a quarter of a million dollar shortfall 2 years in a row?
so who is going to replace him. who will be the new lap dog. the yes man or girl, who will be the new puppet.
Good point #28, $460,000 is 1% of our Village annual budget and no one noticed ? Makes you wonder what else goes missing every year ?
1) Why isn’t this prick in jail
2) No way he was the only one. The only way he even gets to the point where he is comfortable stealing a half million dollars in quarters is if there is a pre existing culture of entitlement that facilitates this kind of behavior. Same thing happened in Hoboken about 10 years ago (only it was $1M). And we all know how squeaky clean that city is.
he must of had dirt on a few upper managers. because if he was going down, so was a few top managers going with him.
the top managers look so bad right now. how are they going to talk out of this one. the mayor and council need to clean the house. start from the top. # 1 well you know who
# 2 well you know who # 3 well you that one too .
this story is all over the place, it’s on c n n my god. what is the mayor and council going to do . the people that put him in power need to be shown the door, see ya.
C N N WOW
The people who hired him are long gone. Those in power realized something was wrong and put a camera in the counting room and he got caught. Cases like this take time to develop. One key issue is there was no accurate way of counting how much money is supposed to be there, so how do you accuse someone without positive documentation ie: video tape. He got caught, prosecuted and will payback all the money. If the critics on this blog had their way he would go to jail, the taxpayer would support him for the length of his sentence and the town would be out the money. This way the taxpayer doesn’t have to pay to support him he has to pay the money back, but the lynch mob on the blog doesn’t get their way.
sorry but this is total BS
Yep #35, this went down mostly under the previous Council over 2011 and 2012.
to # 37, no they are not gone. we still have two top managers that wear behind him to take john spano’s job. what a dam joke that would of bin. 98% of the work force did not trust him.
WHO WAS THE 2 %
37, he was hired under Larry worth or Rod Irwin, I’m pretty sure before Rutishauser was here. Rod Irwin hired john Spano who hire Rica that is still here ?
oh” so that’s it. hummm, well then mr spano may need to go. and what about that guy in the water dept, this is going to get good.
so I take it that guys in the RPD and RFD really despise the guys in Village Hall… what’s the solution ?
44 what gives you that idea or are you just making it up to stir the shit?
to # 44 what, are you high ,
what does this mean ? who is they guy in the water dept that needs to go ? did rica have enough dirt on these guys and the County DA and judge to get a pass ? how deep is this rot ?
The IRS has an award program for whistleblowers – generally cases involving individual taxpayers with gross income of less that $200,000. The awards through this program are less, with a maximum award of 15% up to $10 million. In addition, the awards are discretionary and the informant cannot dispute the outcome of the claim in Tax Court. The rules for these cases are found at Internal Revenue Code IRC Section 7623(a) – Informant Claims Program. If you decide to submit information and seek an award for doing so, use IRS Form 211 (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f211.pdf).
Great article. Thanks for the info, it’s easy to understand. BTW, if anyone needs to fill out a IRS Form 211, I found a blank form here: https://goo.gl/KVN5r8