The library in this article has to be the most forgiving place to work on the planet. Apparently, the library in Pelham, New Hampshire, is allowing their library director to keep his job even though he is off to jail for six months as a result of fraud. The best part though, is that he scammed his previous library out of hundreds of thousands of dollars (which is why he’s going to jail), but Pelham doesn’t seem to be worried. They hired him knowing there were fraud charges pending, but liked his resume and are pleased with his work. Good for them.
Photo of Robert Rice Jr. courtesy of Allegra Boverman
The story goes that Robert Rice Jr. was working for the Revere Public Library and decided he was going to use library funds to buy interesting objects and sell them on Ebay. He purchased over $200,000 worth of items such as a camera, a rolex, baseballs and diving gear. He cleverly passed each item off on the purchase orders as encyclopedias and book sets and then sold them on Ebay for a profit. Of course, he’s had to pay the money back and then some, and now his six months in prison will hopefully be a further deterrent to any future crime he might have been contemplating.
You have to wonder how closely his NEW library has been looking at invoices. Regardless, they’re willing to take him back when he’s ready. How nice.
