by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
I don't know whether to be appalled by - or in awe of - the Texas public employee (and consummate entrepreneur) who stole and then sold $1.2 million dollars worth of fajitas over a nine-year period. This is America, after all, a country that routinely glorifies criminals, particularly those who commit colorful crimes that inspire the anti-social streak in most of us.
Fifty-three-year-old Gilberto Escamilla had a profitable side business to augment the salary that he had been receiving from the state of Texas for his work at a state juvenile detention center. Escamilla was apparently in charge of ordering food for the center, and for nine years he had been ordering fajitas and then intercepting the orders as they were being delivered. He sold those fajitas through his own private business and pocketed the proceeds.
Reports indicate that fajitas were never served to the residents of the juvenile detention center during the time that Escamilla was running his side business.
The thief said that he "felt horrible" about his crime. He added:
Escamilla was arrested last August when a medical appointment caused him to miss the delivery of a truckload of fajitas - and the jig was up. Local district attorney Luis V. Saenz noted that "If it wasn't so serious, you'd think it was a Saturday Night Live skit." The judge who tried the case, however, saw no humor in the matter and sentenced the audacious thief to fifty years in prison because he was a public employee who had violated a public trust.
One is left to wonder about the accounting procedures that would let this crime go unnoticed for nearly a decade - as well as oversight provisions at the juvenile center which let massive amounts of food disappear somewhere between the delivery trucks and the serving tables. Gilberto Escamilla made out like the bandit he was, but several other people were obviously not doing their jobs properly either.
If Texas decides to dig into the matter more thoroughly, perhaps others will follow Gilberto Escamilla to prison - and maybe if they are lucky, those prisons will serve fajitas - at least occasionally - along with "just desserts."
Citizen Journalist
I don't know whether to be appalled by - or in awe of - the Texas public employee (and consummate entrepreneur) who stole and then sold $1.2 million dollars worth of fajitas over a nine-year period. This is America, after all, a country that routinely glorifies criminals, particularly those who commit colorful crimes that inspire the anti-social streak in most of us.
Fifty-three-year-old Gilberto Escamilla had a profitable side business to augment the salary that he had been receiving from the state of Texas for his work at a state juvenile detention center. Escamilla was apparently in charge of ordering food for the center, and for nine years he had been ordering fajitas and then intercepting the orders as they were being delivered. He sold those fajitas through his own private business and pocketed the proceeds.
Reports indicate that fajitas were never served to the residents of the juvenile detention center during the time that Escamilla was running his side business.
The thief said that he "felt horrible" about his crime. He added:
“I wish I could take this back. It was selfish. It started small and got bigger and out of control. It got to a point where I couldn’t control it anymore.”
Escamilla was arrested last August when a medical appointment caused him to miss the delivery of a truckload of fajitas - and the jig was up. Local district attorney Luis V. Saenz noted that "If it wasn't so serious, you'd think it was a Saturday Night Live skit." The judge who tried the case, however, saw no humor in the matter and sentenced the audacious thief to fifty years in prison because he was a public employee who had violated a public trust.
One is left to wonder about the accounting procedures that would let this crime go unnoticed for nearly a decade - as well as oversight provisions at the juvenile center which let massive amounts of food disappear somewhere between the delivery trucks and the serving tables. Gilberto Escamilla made out like the bandit he was, but several other people were obviously not doing their jobs properly either.
If Texas decides to dig into the matter more thoroughly, perhaps others will follow Gilberto Escamilla to prison - and maybe if they are lucky, those prisons will serve fajitas - at least occasionally - along with "just desserts."
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