Overpaid government worker steals money from taxpayers

[Fluff and Stuff]

Some people may think I'm repeating myself in the title 

These folks make lots of money.  They make what, maybe triple (or is it quadruple?) what the average cashier even though their job is easier than being a cashier at Wal-Mart or Wendy's, for example.

Ruggiero became the seventh of 10 Turnpike toll collectors, all arrested in June 2008 and accused of pocketing motorists' cash, to be convicted.

How many people did he really steal from at threat of arrest?  100?  1000?  10000?  But if 10 of the toll collectors were caught, you know there had to be more toll collectors guilty of pocketing tolls.  Who knows, maybe there were 100,000 extra illegal tolls collected in the last couple years in MA.  Or, maybe the toll collectors in MA just collected the correct amount but didn't turn it in.  In that case, they stole from every person in MA every time they did that.  So that would be perhaps 65,000,000,000 cases of stealing, or perhaps more.

Even in Boston, not a single person seemed to support this guy in the comments section.

Toll collector pleads guilty to stealing motorists' cash
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/07/toll_collector_1.html

[dalebert]

I saw the title and thought you were writing your autobiography.  But I forgive you. 

[Fluff and Stuff]

I saw the title and thought you were writing your autobiography.  But I forgive you. 

And I forgive you for what you said   Actually, I get paid less than the average privatish sector worker.

[Russell Kanning]

how much do they get before they do their extra stealing?

[Ogre]

When I read the title, I thought, "But that's what they DO. They don't do anything else."

But after reading, I had a thought similar to Russell. I wonder how much they earn to begin with for doing the simple cashier job? I checked out Salary.com, and it puts the average for the MA toll collector at 18.17 an hr. That's almost 40K a year -- and if that's the average, half of toll collectors earn MORE than than (and half earn less). Yikes.

[Pat McCotter]

When I read the title, I thought, "But that's what they DO. They don't do anything else."

But after reading, I had a thought similar to Russell. I wonder how much they earn to begin with for doing the simple cashier job? I checked out Salary.com, and it puts the average for the MA toll collector at 18.17 an hr. That's almost 40K a year -- and if that's the average, half of toll collectors earn MORE than than (and half earn less). Yikes.

It is a lot but...

That is a description of MEDIAN not AVERAGE. Just needed to pick that nit, y'know?

[MaineShark]

I saw the title and thought you were writing your autobiography.  But I forgive you. 

And I forgive you for what you said   Actually, I get paid less than the average privatish sector worker.

"I could have robbed you of more" is an excuse, these days?

Joe