current coin collection file photo Boyd Loving
Ridgewood seeks new way to collect coins from parking meters after massive theft
SEPTEMBER 21, 2014 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2014, 12:20 AM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
It is situated next to a women’s bathroom, across the hall from a senior citizens lounge, and sits behind a nondescript door most would assume opens to utility storage.
But this is no closet.
Thousands of coins extracted from Ridgewood’s parking meters are stored in this little, elongated room on the first floor of Village Hall. It’s where Thomas Rica of Hawthorne, a former public works inspector, methodically stole $460,000 in coins — sneaking in and out of the room undetected for two years, between 2011 and 2013.
Today, Ridgewood’s now-infamous “coin room” is on lockdown. Security inside and around the room has been enhanced. Even the coins themselves are protected inside — secured within heavy canisters as opposed to being packed loosely in open cans, giving Rica a perfect opportunity to swipe fistfuls of quarters. And a villagewide audit of the collection and storage methods of all municipal monetary transactions is under way, local officials said.
But despite those reforms, the village’s method of collecting parking meter coins — in open containers that occasionally spill into the street — is still archaic. It’s a system that one resident warned village officials about in an email several years ago, before the discovery of Rica’s theft. And it’s a system that several nearby municipalities, including Westwood, Paterson and Passaic, abandoned years ago.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/ridgewood-seeks-new-way-to-collect-coins-from-parking-meters-after-massive-theft-1.1092781#sthash.bh0PHIBl.dpuf
SEPTEMBER 21, 2014 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2014, 12:20 AM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
It is situated next to a women’s bathroom, across the hall from a senior citizens lounge, and sits behind a nondescript door most would assume opens to utility storage.
But this is no closet.
Thousands of coins extracted from Ridgewood’s parking meters are stored in this little, elongated room on the first floor of Village Hall. It’s where Thomas Rica of Hawthorne, a former public works inspector, methodically stole $460,000 in coins — sneaking in and out of the room undetected for two years, between 2011 and 2013.
Today, Ridgewood’s now-infamous “coin room” is on lockdown. Security inside and around the room has been enhanced. Even the coins themselves are protected inside — secured within heavy canisters as opposed to being packed loosely in open cans, giving Rica a perfect opportunity to swipe fistfuls of quarters. And a villagewide audit of the collection and storage methods of all municipal monetary transactions is under way, local officials said.
But despite those reforms, the village’s method of collecting parking meter coins — in open containers that occasionally spill into the street — is still archaic. It’s a system that one resident warned village officials about in an email several years ago, before the discovery of Rica’s theft. And it’s a system that several nearby municipalities, including Westwood, Paterson and Passaic, abandoned years ago.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/ridgewood-seeks-new-way-to-collect-coins-from-parking-meters-after-massive-theft-1.1092781#sthash.bh0PHIBl.dpuf
And he walked away scott free what a crock the justice system is a joke!
#1 Can’t we all just get along?
Outsource to a company that performs this kind of service . ( check the net) They are bonded. Have the Signal Bureau employees go back to the work they were trained for. If we check the amount of man-hours for these people to collect the coins figure their pay pension and medical against what a company
would charges us maybe THE BREATH OF FRESH AIR MANAGER could give the
council and more importantly the taxpayers the feeling that something is being done.
It’s going to be great when the forensic accountant discloses the names of all the people they’ve videoed entering that room who weren’t authorized to be there. The rot goes deep !
Right #4 Just hope your puss is not on the video tape. Your another shit stirrer. Maybe they have video of town worker that are out on disability and there is nothing wrong with them.
…and how amy millions will the new parking meters cost?
with the added bonus of tracking residents shopping and parking habits via credit card use.
Way to go.
— How about:
1) get all of the stolen money back
2) implement REAL security for the quarters – not just toss them in a open buckets in an unguarded closet.
New security measures have already been put into place which make future thefts much more difficult – so why do we need to spend millions on new parking meters?
#4 that’s not going to happen because it doesn’t exist. ( the video) You’re another disgruntled employee that can’t get past the fact you didn’t think of this scam first.
Cant’t believe this dude is gonna get off….put his arse in the pokey and he would squeal like a pig….
Believe it Dude.
He didn’t get off he just didn’t go to jail He got 5 years probation loss of job, pension, and pension contributions, plus he has to pay back money if he fails to he goes to jail.
So how is that punishment ? Anyone stealing from their employer deserves to get fired and lose their pension – he betrayed his employer and the Village residents’ trust. As for the partial repayment of the money – his restitution includes his pension and accumulated leave, and he still won’t pay back the full amount – It wasn’t his money, so he should pay it all back. That’s not punishment, that’s just fair. We’ll see if he really goes to jail if he fails to pay. So again, where is the punishment here ? And why are you happy about his deal ? Where’s your outrage?
Well, I see #7 will be implicated. Having fun with “this scam” ? It’s not a scam, its called criminal activity.
So your argument is “let’s not install smart meters that will avoid any slippage for villagers” ? What kind of a Luddite are you ? New meters might threaten the long standing tradition of municipal employees stealing quarters to pay for personal entertainment or help with the mortgage or money launder it through AC, so let’s protest against them? Sorry #6, anyone who defends the status quo here can only be a part of the problem. We’re not falling for it.
If you know of employees who are scamming the system by claiming disability when there is nothing wrong with them, then you should report them to the Village Manager.
#11 I’m not outraged because I look at his punishment from a real world perspective. By jailing this loser we would accomplish nothing except the taxpayers would incur a 50,000 per year expense to incarcerate this loser his crime was no violent and as such we the people have an opportunity to regain some lost funds, we no longer jail 1st offenders for drug possession, we send them for treatment and probation saving the jail space for violent offenders. The people who scream for a pound of flesh are the last to think of the results, and the first to scream about cost’s associated with it. There are others who scream conspiracy without a shred of evidence, all they have is BS conjecture.
#15, what makes you convinced that Rica is the only employee who took quarters ? You say there’s no evidence to prove a conspiracy, which implies that you believe he acted alone. What evidence do you have to prove that ?
#16 when you figure out how to prove something didn’t happen let me know, until then we have to rely on what we can prove did happen!
If there was evidence even remotely implicating other they woul have been prosecuted or charged administratively already. Futhermore there are enough malcontents, and disgruntled units working there that someone would have blown the “whistle” by now. Add to that if anything was uncovered and the good Dr.G hid the evidence it would have been brought to light by the current administration as an exclamation point on their dismissal of the good DR. G. Those are the facts and cricumstances that I base my statement on.