Two former City of Albuquerque Solid Waste Management workers are under criminal investigation for defrauding the city, among other alleged crimes.
http://liarcatchers.com/employee_investigations.html
In late 2010 and early 2011, management at Solid Waste hired a private investigator to follow garbage truck collectors, Leroy Ulibarri and Rick Koppos.
The investigations were triggered when managers noticed that GPS tracking software showed these two drivers frequently veering away from their garbage collection routes.
The City of Albuquerque provided video and documents to KOB Eyewitness News 4, which outlined the actions of the two employees.
The city alleged Ulibarri stole a city-owned dumpster and placed it on his property. The city alleged Ulibarri ran a scam by picking up construction materials and garbage from his friends and charged them $100 each. He would then take the full dumpster to the landfill and tell the attendant to bill Apria Healthcare for the dumping cost. Apria Healthcare is a private business that specializes in home nursing and was completely unaware they were being defrauding, according to city documents.
During the course of the video, investigators are seen questioning Ulibarri.
“Why are you doing this stuff,” the investigator asked.
“It’s been kind of slow now and my daughter just went to college and I just wanted to get a little extra cash,” Ulibarri replied.
The investigator asked “how long have you been working for the city?”
“Five years,” Ulibarri replied.
Then there is the case of Rick Koppos. This time, the city suspected Koppos was operating a tire recycling business out of his garbage truck. City documents stated that Koppos collected tires from a tire shop in his truck. He would then charge the shop owner to dispose of the tires while pocketing the money and still collecting a city paycheck.
Surveillance video also caught Koppos shopping at Wal-Mart, Big Lots and grabbing a lunch at Dion’s Pizza. Despite the video evidence, Koppos fought the charges but was ultimately fired.
“What this allowed us to do is quickly address the behavior and make our drivers aware that they are responsible to the residents to provide cost effective service,” Chief Operations Officer John Soladay said.
A spokeswoman for the mayor’s office said the Albuquerque Police Department continues to investigate the two former employees.
Soladay reported he has seen a drastic decline in bad employee behavior now that they know management tracks their whereabouts with GPS devices while they drive garbage trucks and managers aren’t afraid to hire private investigators to check out suspicious behavior.
