🚀 go-pugleaf

<dsharavi@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1117670954.671879.22900@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> The four thieves are contract employees (except the employer), from
> Hillsburrito, Latino. How many of the thieves are here illegally?
>
> Parking meters missing $178,555
>
> Four employees of Alpha Building Maintenance are accused of skimming
> change while clearing Portland's meters
>
> Wednesday, June 01, 2005
> ANNA GRIFFIN
>
> Portland police and parking officials say employees of a company hired
> to collect coins from city meters stole $178,555 over a recent
> nine-month period -- in nickels, dimes, quarters and the occasional
> dollar coin.
>
> A Multnomah County grand jury recently indicted four employees of
> Hillsboro-based Alpha Building Maintenance -- owner Geraldo
> Luna-Benitez, 44, and employees Fidencia Navarro-Peregrina, 25; Valente
> Moreno-Munoz, 23; and Javier Moreno-Munoz, 22. Each faces two felony
> counts of first-degree aggravated theft and two counts of conspiracy to
> commit first-degree aggravated theft.
>
> "The people responsible for this literally skimmed off the top," said
> Keith Ehrensing, who oversees parking meters for the city. "They didn't
> take much from any individual machine at any one time -- maybe few
> dollars a meter. But it added up to the point that we noticed."
>
> Although the Portland Office of Transportation is shifting to the
> solar-powered, multispace SmartMeters, the city still uses about 1,000
> old-fashioned, single-space meters for parking enforcement. Most are in
> Northeast Portland near the Lloyd Center and in the Rose Quarter, and
> most are the twin-headed variety.
>
> In January 2004, Alpha Building Maintenance began work under a
> competitively bid $42,000 contract to collect coins from city machines
> for 18 months. Six months later, someone began stealing money from the
> double-headed meters.
>
> The machines, which resemble drab Mickey Mouse ears, are easy to
> manipulate -- if you have a key. Funnels carry money from each head to
> a single change can. Police think someone blocked the can's slot,
> creating a backlog of change when drivers went to pay.
>
> It took months for city parking regulators to notice: Ehrensing says he
> thinks the thieves were taking on average $500 per collection cycle.
> That's small change, considering that city parking meters bring in
> almost $10 million each year.
>
> "It wasn't the kind of numbers that immediately jump out," said Ellis
> McCoy, the city's parking operations manager. City and police base
> their estimate of the total lost on a drop in revenue for the same
> period of the previous year.
>
> In December, the transportation office began its own investigation,
> including swapping out the double-headed machines for the more secure
> single-headed variety.
>
> "We saw a difference," McCoy said. "It became clear this was someone on
> the inside."
>
> In February, the Portland Police got involved. Although Detective Karna
> Barnard wouldn't talk in detail about the investigation, she says
> officers conducted surveillance as Alpha Building Maintenance crews
> emptied the machines, among other steps.
>
> On April 8, investigators arrested the Moreno-Munoz brothers after they
> finished one collection route. The men had with them a black athletic
> jacket with $546.36 -- 50 pounds in loose change -- stuffed in two
> pockets, Barnard said. Police found an additional $765.49 in change,
> most of it in another coat, in their home.
>
> Four days later, after another surveillance operation, police arrested
> Navarro-Peregrina with $3,606.41 in coins in her possession, Barnard
> said. The city transportation office has canceled its parking deal with
> Alpha Building Maintenance and temporarily hired Oregon Armored
> Services, the second lowest bidder two years ago. Alpha Building
> Maintenance has at least one other ongoing city contract, for pressure
> washing downtown.
>
> Deputy District Attorney Kevin Demer says all four Alpha Building
> employees failed to show up for their arraignment, and he said their
> whereabouts are unknown.
>
> A man who said he was Luna-Benitez answered the phone Tuesday evening
> at the company's Hillsboro office. He said that neither he nor his
> workers stole from the city and that he was in the process of answering
> a letter from his bonding company demanding payment of money the city
> says Luna-Benitez owes taxpayers.
>
> "I've told them, don't pay anything. We owe nothing," he said. "This is
> ridiculous."
>
> If convicted, Luna-Benitez and his three employees could each face at
> least two years in prison.
>
> Anne Saker of The Oregonian staff contributed to this article. Anna
> Griffin: 503-294-5988; annagriffin@news.oregonian.com
>
> -http://www.oregonlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/front_page/1117620424233
980.xml?oregonian?fpfp&coll=7
>
Maybe they were just "greasering" their palms.

Hank