The Virginian-Pilot Kerry Dougherty column
By Kerry Dougherty, The Virginian-Pilot | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
When you saw The Pilot's front-page story on Thursday -- the one headlined "Not So Fast!" -- you focused on the rascal who was supposed to collect a
What would you do if you were the beneficiary of a misplaced decimal point?
Would you keep the windfall and see whether the chuckleheads at
The recipient of this bonanza not only kept the money but spent almost half of it, said City Attorney
The man who allegedly took the loot isn't talking -- and we won't name him here because the policy of The Pilot is not to reveal the identity of those named in a search warrant but not charged with a crime.
Pishko is talking, however. What follows is his account of the caper.
It all began last winter, Pishko said, with a simple typo by one of his office workers on a form authorizing payment of a settlement. She hit a couple of extra zeroes, and suddenly the
Trouble is, no one noticed. You see,
That obviously needs to change. Real signatures would mean at least one set of eyes on every disbursement.
City Treasurer
Pishko insists there are safeguards to prevent such errors, but the system broke down when an "irate man" barged into his office and demanded immediate payment. He didn't want to wait for his check to be sent to him as is customary, Pishko told me.
"She was trying to be customer-friendly," Pishko said of the 40-year employee who gave the check to the man, thereby skipping a step in which a lawyer or adjuster would take a look before putting the check in the mail.
Pishko said the aggrieved man cashed the check and started spending. By the time the city's risk management office noticed the money was missing, three months had gone by, and about
I'd ask why it took city officials three months to notice a
Once the city attorney realized the mistake had originated in his office, he sprang into action. He called the recipient and ordered him to return the funds. The guy arrived with a measly 1,000 bucks.
That's when Pishko turned into Dirty Harry Lite.
"I worked him as well as I could," he told me.
The man finally admitted that a chunk of the loot was in a
Pishko didn't trust him.
"You're not leaving without me," the city attorney told him.
Pishko then made a couple of phone calls. One to the police chief, asking for an escort. Another to a
On Friday, Pishko admitted he didn't have the authority to meddle in bank matters.
"I thought about going to court and asking for an injunction," Pishko said. "But I realized he'd be long gone."
Instead, Pishko and the police followed the man to his house near Janaf Shopping Yard.
"The police officers were kind enough to ask the man if he minded if I went in the house with him," Pishko recalled, laughing.
The man warned that he had pit bulls.
Pishko waited outside. The man came out with
"I sure hope he's going to be charged (with a crime)," Pishko told Pilot reporter
"What crime?" I asked Thursday.
"I don't know the crime; I don't practice criminal law," Pishko replied. "It is a crime to take something which is not yours.... I'm not looking for jail time though."
What he wants is restitution.
Pishko said cashing a check for an incorrect amount is the same as coming into his office and snatching a stack of money off a desk.
No it's not.
In this case, a city worker handed the dude a check. In Pishko's hypothetical, the money was stolen.
The city attorney acknowledged that he can and will pursue a civil lawsuit to recoup the missing money.
Prosecutors have not charged the man with a crime, suggesting that these actions, while wrong, may not be illegal.
That won't satisfy Dirty Harry Lite.
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