REVERE - Police say veteran city employee Michael Ferragamo admitted to stealing street signs from the Charger Street city yard over the last two weeks and selling them to an Everett scrap metal dealer.
Ferragamo, 47, 65 McKinley St., is slated to plead innocent in Chelsea District Court to breaking and entering and larceny charges.
Police Sgt. Thomas Malone in a report filed Friday stated Ferragamo admitted being paid $500 to $700 for the signs valued by Public Works Superintendent Donald Goodwin at $2,000 to $5,000. Between 1,000 and 1,500 signs are missing.
A call to Ferragamo's listed telephone number Friday afternoon found it disconnected.
A public works employee returning to work Wednesday after a week off noticed the signs missing from the sign shop in the Charger Street yard. Police reviewed security camera videotape with DPW officials and observed Ferragamo getting out of a city van and entering the shop on May 28. Video taken May 29 and June 1 shows the van leaving and entering the Charger Street yard.
The GPS device installed in the city van tracked the vehicle traveling on May 28 and on May 29 to a residence abutting Ferragamo's house and to Everett. The GPS also tracked the vehicle traveling to Everett on June 1.
The theft is the latest source of unwanted attention for Goodwin and his department.
A confrontation last week with City Councilor at Large John R. Correggio prompted both men to file criminal complaints set for review June 25 in Chelsea District Court.
The missing signs also raise the specter of another city theft a half year after city auditors documented misspending in the public library. Former Library Director Robert Rice resigned after the spending discrepancies were found and the probe into library accounts continues with the Suffolk District Attorney's office spearheading it.
Lynn Item
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