How sad is this?

[anderle]

APEX, N.C. An Apex man has been charged with stealing about $2,600 from the local offices of the Boy Scouts of America.

 

James Warren Rupp, 46, of 9037 Holly Springs Road in Apex, surrendered to police Wednesday and was charged with embezzlement. He was released after posting a $5,000 bond.

 

Investigators said Rupp was in charge of the popcorn sale money for the Boy Scouts and that he stole some of it between Jan. 1 and July 6.

 

Rupp is on probation for a 2007 conviction for obtaining property by false pretense. He also was convicted in 2006 on that charge, as well as larceny by employee and writing worthless checks, according to state Department of Correction records.

 

From WRAL.com http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/10076403/

[The Blancmange]

It would be interesting to know if those prior convictions predate his BSA application and if so, whether they showed up in his background check.

 

I guess in a larger town this might go unnoticed, but around here it would be difficult for someone to not hear about it, if he were already a leader.

[eisely]

I don't know if the criminal background checks done by BSA would have caught this. It is my understanding (correct me if I am wrong) that these checks focus on violent crimes and sex crimes. Does BSA even screen for other non violent crimes like a relatively petty embezzlement?

 

Clearly if the other people in charge of the fund raiser had known of this prior record they should never have put him in this position. Fortunately the amounts are quite minor.

 

Non profits like BSA at the unit level are particularly vulnerable to being ripped off, if someone is determined to do it.

[nldscout]

I have to tell you this is not new to me. Every year I get Civil claims filed in court from the Girl Scouts and other similar groups for adults not turning in money.

 

The Girl Scouts pursue claims against people that have not turned in the money for cookies they were supposed to deliver. They don't take no for an answer.

 

While most are less money than this it is not unheard of to be hundreds of dollars. Its to bad that the BSA won't pursue some of those that do this more often.

[SeattlePioneer]

Hello nldscouter,

 

 

Is that typically handled in small claims court?

 

 

I'm guessing that the best way for units to protect themselves is to have money, checks and order forms turned in early and often.

 

Our council takes the risk on bad checks and engages in collection action on those, but loss or fraud by sellers is the responsibility of units.

[Stosh]

We had a situation where someone stiffed the unit and the unit went to small claims court to get it's money. The person did not show so the unit had the judge issue an arrest warrant for contempt of court for not showing up. That caught the person's attention really fast. Warrants work faster than letters from lawyers. Needless to say, the unit got their money really quick.

 

Stosh

[SeattlePioneer]

Hello Jblake,

 

 

Having a party to a lawsuit fail to appear in small claims court is very common. Usually that produces a dismissal of the case if it's the plaintiff who brought the case failing to appear, or a default judgment if it's the defendant who fails to appear.

 

I've never heard of a judge issuing an arrest warrant for failing to appear for a small claims court case, but perhaps that can happen if you annoy a judge enough some way.

 

It would be very unusual, anyway.

[Jeffrey H]

It happened to our unit last year when a parent did not turn in a significant amount of popcorn money and the popcorn was already delivered to the customers. We pursued this parent several times to pay the money and even offered them a "payment plan" to return the money, but we had no success. It was not worth taking to court. The saddest part of the story is their cub scout son never returned and he was one of my favorites.

[Stosh]

The example I cited may have been a unique case in that the SM of the unit was a former state bank auditor and was currently VP of a bank in the collections department. I'm sure he knew how to work the system better than the average person. Needless to say when the deputy showed up at the lady's home with an arrest warrant, she most certainly took her check book with her.

 

How many people just settle for "winning" their case and realize that they will never be able to collect the money anyway? I'm sure this gentleman knew that and speaking on behalf of a BSA troop, was able to push the judge for a warrant.

 

It's always better to come with a gun to a knife fight.

 

Stosh

[nldscout]

I can only answer for what happens in Small Claims in NY. We would not issue a warrant for failure to appear for the claim, but could for contempt for further proceedings.

 

Seattle,

 

Typically the Girl Scouts are not Small Claims, they ar3e handled as a regular civil suit because they use an attorney. The difference being the attorney gets to collect his fee. As far as Bad checks, thats a criminal charge.

 

Jeffrey H.

"It was not worth taking to court" How much is worth going to court? $100? $250? I would submit that anything is worth doing it. Remember, who's money is it? Its the Boys, so why let some adult steal it.

 

As for collecting, your right it sometimes is a pain, and sometimes is not possible, but you don't know if you don't try.

 

As an example, I had a lady who took her neighbor to Small Claims court. Seems the gentleman had a flock of sheep, with a particularly big Ram. The lady was mowing her lawn on her riding mower when the ram took offense at the noise because he was feeling romantic with one of the ewe's and the noise apparantly bothered him. I know it sounds funny, but true.

 

The ram broke through the fence and head butted the mower till it quit. Cost of repairs $250.00. She won because he thought it was a joke and then wouldn't pay. So she got a lien on his house, and 4 yrs later he had an offer to sell it for $99,000, but wouldn't pay the $250 Judgement. So no sale. 8 months later

when he was close to losing it to bank, he sold it for $85,000,after paying the $250, So he lost $14000 because he was pigheaded. All because the lady wouldn't take no for an answer.

 

 

 

[SeattlePioneer]

I was a volunteer for a homeowner's association and was tasked with getting people to move their fences that were encroaching on the common areas.

 

The worst offender was the association President, who had fenced off one entire common area, more than doubling the area of her property.

 

She ASSURED the board the would remove the fence when she sold her property, and I couldn't get the board to let me go after her.

 

A few years later, she put the property up for sale, including the encroachment. When she got an offer on her property, I had my attorney file a lawsuit against her on the encraochment including a lis pendens action which prevented her from selling the property until the lawsuit was concluded.

 

Imagine how unhappy she was! How TERRIBLE I was!

 

She wound up removing the encroachment and paying me $5,000 to settle the lawsuit.

 

Tieing up property when someone wants to sell it can be a great way to get paid or get leverage over someone.

 

 

 

[Tokala]

Similar situation with a troop I was involved with years ago. The troop treasurer had skimmed/defrauded the troop account of about $14,000 by the time it was discovered. The individual worked for the Sheriff's office and was quickly fired. They did pay the troop back all of the money that was stolen. The troop committee realized it was handling the bank account poorly and made adjustments.