Crime Does Pay...

If you're a thieving public employee in Jersey, as this story sent in by Joseph in IL tells us...

Probation for official who stole $460K in quarters

The former public works inspector for a northern New Jersey town who admitted stealing $460,000 in quarters over two years has been spared a prison term.

A judge instead sentenced Thomas Rica on Wednesday to five years of probation.

Rica had worked in Ridgewood for 10 years before his arrest in January 2013. He pleaded guilty in March to four counts of theft as part of a plea deal that called for probation and restitution.

Okay, now first, a little math. Assuming that this guy split the take pretty evenly, he was bringing home $4600 a week in stolen money. In stolen quarters. That's 18,400 quarters a week. According to the US Mint, a quarter weighs 5.67 grams, or 0.035 ounces. That's 649 ounces of quarters a week, or over 40 pounds of quarters every week.

That's a lot of work, stealing that money...

Here's the best part, though. He doesn't go to jail, and he doesn't have to pay all the money back. He's on the hook for $250K, meaning that he cleared over $200K from out-and-out theft. Wonderful, isn't it? Personally, I'd have offered him a deal: pay the money back, with interest and damages, or we send you away for the maximum amount of time allowed by law.

Break the public trust and you *make* $200K. Then again, how much do congresscritters make? At least this guy had to lug 8 pounds of quarters every single day. Congresscritters take "fact-finding" junkets to the Carribean. He did also give up his $30K/year pension, so assuming he lives more than 7 years, the remaining money will be made up.

I still think he should at least be put in the stocks so the townspeople can pelt him with rotten fruit.

That is all.