$460,000 in Quarters Stolen in NJ: Thomas Rica Caught Red-Handed Filling Pockets
A man stole $460,000 in quarters from the town of Ridgewood, N.J. over the course of two years and finally pleaded guilty to his crimes on Wednesday. Thomas Rica, the former public works inspector for the town, won't go to jail for his crime, but will be forced to pay all the money back under the threat of prison time.
The $460,000 in quarters was stolen over 25 months. Every few days, 43-year-old Rica would use the master key to get access to the Ridgewood Village Hall room, which had the N.J. town's parking meter quarters. In January of 2013 he was arrested while trying to lift $500 in quarters from the room, which eventually led to his guilty plea to four counts of theft.
Though Rica won't go to prison, he will be forced to pay back the estimated total sum of $460,600 to Ridgewood, according to NJ.com. His first lump sum of $69,600 was set at his sentencing on June 6 and he is supposed to pay $2,000 a month every month afterwards. It is tough to calculate how much the town actually lost, though, as the man deposited his stolen quarters at several different branches of TD Bank.
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"This is a substantial amount of money that Ridgewood lost," Daniel Keitel, the Bergen County Assistant Prosecutor, said in Bergen Superior Court.
This theft was "outrageous and seemingly incomprehensible," Mayor Paul Arohnsohn told NJ.com. Ridgewood is "absolutely determined to get to the bottom of this and take all steps necessary to prevent anything like this from happening again."
That means banning Rica from all public employment in New Jersey, adding more security around the parking meter room, and potentially calling in an outside firm to do an audit.
Rica's lawyer, Robert Galantucci, said that even though his client made $86,000 a year, being "in a room with a lot of money" was a "temptation." He also said Rica is committed to paying the money back.
"He's going to work very hard," Galantucci explained. "His family is going to support him."
$460,000 in quarters works out to about 1.8 million quarters over the span of two years.
