Posted on 03/09/2021 2:36:47 PM PST by Olog-hai
A 48-year-old Amtrak worker has been arrested for allegedly stealing chainsaws and chainsaw parts valued at more than $50,000 from his employer and reselling them, mainly via an online auction service, federal prosecutors in New Jersey say.
Jose Rodriguez, of Brick, faces one count of theft from an agency receiving federal funds and one count of theft of government property for the alleged years-long scheme, Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Rachel Honig said Tuesday.
According to court papers, Rodriguez has been an Amtrak employee since October 2007, most recently as a senior engineer and repairman based out of a facility in North Brunswick.
Between August 2016 and July 2020, he allegedly stole 77 chainsaws, 103 bars and 163 chains from Amtrak and used an online auction service to sell most of the goods to buyers in more than a half-dozen U.S. states. The total estimated value of the items was $53,535, the complaint says. …
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnewyork.com ...
I bet he got a good paycheck too.
Gubment paying $500 for $300 saws, and this guy selling them for $100 to the public?
Formerly, he did, but not any more.
I’ll bet $100 Jose is an “undocumented immigrant”.
I know. What a great country we live in. So much money spent that even the little guys are starting to get their graft. The government is funded via theft. Why just stop the theft at collection, Congress, and the big 3 letter agencies.
Seventy seven saws? Granted it was over the period of a few years, however, did he not think that Amtrack might actually look for the missing saws ? Possibly, maybe, perhaps ?
I worked for a place that had tons of valuable old junk laying around. They would keep it until all the value was written off on the books, then to prove it was worthless, they would destroy it.
I’d bet this guy was doing net good for the world.
I don’t think that’s how “trickle down economics” was supposed to work...
Rodriguez faces up to 10 years in prison on each count if convicted, along with a maximum fine of $250,000.
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I bet thus guy does far more time for his $50K theft than Kevin Clinesmith, the FBI lawyer who fabricated evidence for the FISA Court to get Gen. Flynn indicted.
My Dad worked on the New York Central Railroad. There was a massive derailment involving boxcars full of car tires - almost every guy who worked in the freight yard had new tires on their cars a few days after the accident.
“one count of theft from an agency receiving federal funds and one count of theft of government property “
using the same statutes, I wonder what we could charge Hitlery with?
I guess if you sell it first and THEN get your Vig, it’s not the same?
Or is that just for uranium?
I’m so confused . . .
s/
“did he not think that Amtrack might actually look for the missing saws ?”
Having indulged in some ill-thought out schemes in my misspent youth, let me say, the first time you steal something you are 100% certain you will get caught, and if it doesn’t happen in a day or two, you feel lucky to have gotten away with it. However, once you get away with it a few more times, you start getting overconfident. Thieves don’t tend to think five years into the future, they think like the Jane’s Addiction song says: “I walk right out the door... if I get by, it’s mine, mine all mine!”
And 35 cents.
I always suspected Amtrak trains were made of chainsaws.
I don’t know. I see an entrepreneur. Wouldn’t hire him to run the stock, but strikes me as an out of the box thinker.
You win post of the day.
$53, 535? He probably made well over twice that every year, and could have worked for 20 more years. Throwing away $2 million for $50K does not seem like a sound life strategy.
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