While ,Village officials said a forensic accounting firm has been retained to examine how a former employee managed to steal $460,000 in quarters from parking meters.
See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/ridgewood-hires-auditor-in-460-000-meter-thefts-1.1050247#sthash.Ut7rRzDP.dpuf
Although I’m not convinced that all meters would need to be replaced in order to implement a closed container/collection system, I’ll give the Village Manager the benefit of the doubt.
But, at a minimum, they should deep six those open white paint buckets/pickle containers and have all collectors use the carts depicted here:
https://www.pom.com/collectionsystems.htm
Continuing to use those buckets is a huge security risk, for the individual collecting monies (holdup/robbery) and for taxpayers (shrinkage).
It is actually very funny that we can’t afford to secure the Villages’s cash. I’m sure there is a solution out there that costs less than $460,000.
They made a deal and I’m hoping the whole story will come out eventually. Who in the police dept. is/are being protected?
Yet again, taxpayers getting screwed to protect some mob/union crony(ies) in Village Hall and/or the PD. Put in smart meters like NYC and let people use credit cards… how are we doing on Tommy Boy’s restitution ? Is he paying us back every week? The guy is obviously a wise guy, and refused to rat out his minders in Village Hall.
No doubt this guy had help…he was Walter White and now we have to find Jesse Pinkman.
Tommy boy probably responsible for all of the recent car burglaries in Glenrock, so say the police, but how do we know they’re not involved in the whole quarters theft scam, too ? Maybe Saudino can give Tommy boy a lift to work every day in his MRAP ?
I’m usualy against conspiracy theorists, be it Kennedy, 9/11, Elvis, the Moon landing, bin Laden’s killing, etc., but I have to say that the Ridgewood meter money theft issue is a pandora’s box of speculation, and in a world where everyone has an online voice, it’s hardly surprising that speculation is rampant. Why? Here’s why:
1. Despite advances made in parking meters in just about most of the world, including other towns and even NYC, Ridgewood, considered to be a highly sophisticated town, decided to keep it’s museum-pieces as a way of collecting parking fees.
2. The man who was caught was able to negotiate an absurd guilty-plea deal whereby he avoided jail time and agreed to pay just some of it back. One has to wonder why the prosecutor agreed to such a sweet deal on a charge of what is effectively massive theft by a public official in a position of trust. The perception is that the deal was made as a way of avoiding a trial, a trial which would have given the defense attorney room to ask a lot of embarrassing questions.
3. There have been unconfirmed accounts that meter money has always been used as a petty-cash box for the Village, a way of paying for incidentals, like lunches, entertainment, etc. There’s no electronic methodology of recording what gets taken in by the meters, and therefore, it’s easy to record this number at whatever you want it to be.
4. This is local government in the state of New Jersey. If you need me to expand on this, then you must be new here.
If we had a truly democratic and open local Government, the meter theft matter would have been publicly addressed, instead of being allowed to fester.
I say again, it’s like a bank telling their shareholders that it’s too expensive to install a vault and to conduct routine audits, so we’re just going to leave the money out in the open and if people steal it, well then so be it.
Turn the entire operation over to an experienced vendor who understands that large amounts of cash are a prime target for employee theft. Seems like no one at Village Hall really understands this fact. Dumb and dumber.
Seems like this one guy was sent up for doing what several people in the building were already doing and had been doing for years.
“Hey let’s go to The Office for lunch, it’s Friday…wait for me out front, I have to make a stop downstairs (wink wink).”
“Beers at the Elks?”
“Sure, meet you there in ten!”
Doesn’t make him any less of a scumbag, but he is probably getting an inordinate share of the derision. Unfortunately for the honest contingency in Village Hall, but thanks to this plea and cover up, they are now all suspect as far as I am concerned.
Of course he had help. How do you dispose of 1,840,000 quarters???
“Highly sophisticated town “?
Really?
I was referring to it’s residents. Definitely not the Village administration.
If you have any information relating to the theft of money relating to the Village of Ridgewood meter revenues please contact John L. Molinelli, Bergen County Prosecutor at:
10 Main Street
Hackensack, NJ 07601
Mon-Fri (201) 646-2300
After Hours (201) 646-2700
All information received will be held in the strictest confidence.
Funny #10, agreed that Molinelli is clearly in on the scam – why else would he have cut a deal with no jail time, and less than full restitution for Tommy boy ? The guy stole half a million dollars from us and walks free like nothing happened. Why isn’t Ridgewood appealing his deal ? We’re not going to get the money back anyway, so appeal the Bergen County deal, file a civil suit, ask the Feds to get involved if this is mo-related, just do something to protect the public trust instead of just laying down and taking this abuse.