CLEVELAND, Ohio — Three Ohio Lottery Commission workers lost their jobs last week after a watchdog agency accused them of stealing nearly $3,000 in goods that belonged to the state from a Cleveland warehouse.
Scott Kronik, Walter Liszniansky and Jeffrey Chapman were fired on Friday, lottery spokeswoman Danielle Frizzi Babb said.
All three are scheduled to appear Feb. 28 at pre-trial hearings at Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, court records say.
A grand jury on Dec. 21 handed up felony theft in office charges against the trio, that worked at the commission's warehouse on Perkins Avenue near the Agora Ballroom, according to court records.
The men are accused of taking scrap metal and wood pallets from the warehouse and selling the items at local junkyards, police and court records say. The group collected about $2,900 from the sales over a three-year period, amounting to about $1 per day per person.
The Ohio Inspector General's Office and the State Highway Patrol opened the investigation in July when a co-worker sent a complaint to the lottery commission, records say.
The complaint said that Kronik, an inventory control specialist, and deliverymen Liszniansky and Chapman were seen loading metal and pallets into their personal vehicles, records say. The men later returned to the warehouse, where they were seen dividing the cash, records say.
All three men were suspended and the complaint was turned over to the inspector general.
Investigators confirmed that two nearby scrap yards — The American Iron and Metal Scrap Yard and Maximum Pallets Corp. — bought materials from the men, records say. Scrap yard employees provided records and inventories of the sales, as well as photographs that showed Liszniansky and Chapman scrapping the items.
Liszniansky admitted to selling the goods, but said they started after the Ohio Lottery Commission stopped bringing in its own dumpster to get rid of the pallets and office supplies, and management told the workers to find a way to get rid of them, the report says.
Chapman told investigators that the men had been selling the items for "five or six years," and that the proceeds amounted to "lunch money," the report says.
The investigation identified a total of 56 instances where Kronik, Liszniansky and Chapman sold the items.
The probe also uncovered that Kronik and Liszniansky were caught several times sleeping on the job.
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Whatever the judge gives them, they deserve!
"management told the workers to find a way to get rid of them"
So They Get Fired For Following Orders.
I Can See If They Left The Site During Office Hours To Do So,But C'mon Really.
Guess The Company Will Now Pay Someone To Take This Stuff Away.
If Not,The Place Will Start Looking Like An Eyesore Soon Enough.
a watchdog agency accused them of stealing nearly $3,000 in goods that belonged to the state
Part of me says stupid criminals. Now lost no doubt good paying jobs. Maybe they can prove they were ordered to get rid of that junk, but to sell state property albeit junk was just plain stupid.
Thieves out here have been known to remove highway guard rails, aluminum sidings from homes as scrap. However Kronik,Liszniansky & Chapman LLC....give a the new spin to the word" outside job" These three's defense could be that all they were doing was " clearing up space at the yard." Gotta try right?
They should appeal. Management told them to get rid of it--so how is that theft?
yea, i wonder what they TOLD management about how they were getting rid of the stuff? Maybe management knew they were doing this?
Yes, they should appeal. Hopefully one or all them was smart enough to document dates and times they were told to get rid of the stuff. Does anyone else see a grey area here though? Taking it to a scrap yard for money? That might be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
I'd say it's very black or white. Either they were told to get rid of it or they weren't. If they were told to get rid of it the rational conclusion is that the lottery (or at least the employees' supervisors) considered it trash rather than lottery property. The only reasonable restriction on how to dispose of it is that they don't do anything illegal, such as dumping it in the woods.
If they were told to get rid of it there may well be a paper trail of one sort or another. At the very least there should be records to confirm whether or not the lottery had been paying for dumpsters/disposal and then stopped paying.
If management told them to rid it however then this is the way i see it. If they were to haul it to a disposal place who is going to pay for the fuel and use of a truck. I am sure there would be no gas reimbursment . So to them they figured out a way to rid of it and cover their expense of doing so.
Hey I have seen some of these state lotteries that wont even replace worn out equipment (terminals) in the stores they are selling their tickets at....and they keep having to run the ticket thru time and again to read it.
No, no more money that was involved I would give these guys there jobs back and have and understanding how the lottery wants things handled in writing. Shame on the lottery especially when a higher up told them to get rid of it.