A custodian at a city school in Harlem allegedly stole $29,000 from the school's payroll and used some of the cash to send his kids to a costly prep school in Pennsylvania. Edwin Hendricks, 42, reportedly confessed to withdrawing the cash from a Thurgood Marshall Academy custodial account that he was supposed to monitor, but said he "normally only stole money around the end of the year."
An investigator told the the Post that Hendricks "had a variety of ways of stealing money," including writing $1,772 in checks to himself for periods for which he had already been compensated, and writing checks for his sister—who actually worked for a bank in Newark. Hendricks reportedly used $1,400 of the stolen money to pay for his kids to attend the Solebury School in Pennsylvania, where tuition can cost almost $43,000. He said he eventually planned to reimburse the city for that expenditure, as well as $150 of stolen money he donated to Rep. Ed Towns (D-Brooklyn).
According to the Daily News, Hendricks admitted he augmented his $86,000 salary with $14,000 of stolen money, but investigators think he took $15,000 more. Hendricks said he took the money because his wife was sick and he was facing "financial hardship." In some cases, he claimed he had mistakenly stolen the money by accidentally billing his work account when he meant to use his personal account. He told investigators "[a]t least I'm not as bad" as a custodian accused of stealing nearly $100,000 from West Side High School. Department of Education spokeswoman Margie Feinberg stated: "We will seek his termination."
