Smithtown reports checks and cash stolen from town hall

Smithtown terminated the town’s contract with the company that cleaned Town Hall offices after discovering missing checks, cash, jewelry and other items, town officials said.

Staffers in Tax Receiver Deanna Varricchio’s office discovered on July 19 that blank town checks and electronically deposited checks that residents had used to pay taxes were missing, officials said. Town employees also discovered cash and checks missing from the senior center, officials said. Town Hall workers had previously reported missing food, napkins and jewelry, town Supervisor Edward Wehrheim said. 

Public Safety Department investigators also learned that someone had attempted to cash a resident’s check, Wehrheim said. “We discontinued service that day,” and the company returned all town keys, he said.

Town officials identified the company as OneService Commercial Building Maintenance. A website for the company lists a Bohemia address. A request for comment left on company voicemail Thursday was not returned. The company's phone was disconnected Friday. 

Town officials alerted detectives from the Suffolk Police Department’s 4th Precinct on July 19. “There is an ongoing investigation,” a police spokesman said.

Councilman Thomas Lohmann, an NYPD and Suffolk County District Attorney’s office veteran, said any charges could include grand larceny, a felony. 

Town officials provided detectives with surveillance camera footage from town buildings, but no cameras are focused on work areas that would have recorded the thefts, Lohmann said. With the possible exception of Parks Department employees, town staffers don’t have access to multiple work areas, he said. The circumstances surrounding the thefts "would lead one to believe there's a problem with the cleaning company," Lohmann said. “I’m pretty confident it’s not an individual or individuals within the town that was doing this." 

Varricchio said the thief or thieves took 200 residents’ checks and six blank town checks.   

The residents’ checks were in an unlocked cabinet, stored for record-keeping purposes, she said. They are shredded after three months. Town officials may now buy a lockable cabinet, she said. 

“I’m here 18 years,” she said. “We’ve never had anything like this before.”

OneService won the contract to clean town buildings with a low bid of $136,276.40 on Jan. 1. The town council on Aug. 13 approved a new contract with Commercial Cleaning Long Island, whose $139,360 bid was second lowest.

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.