Judge Orders 9/11 Theme Truck Operated By "Charity" Impounded

The Attorney General's Office of New Jersey is going after a pair of scammers who were busying themselves by going around Lower Manhattan in a pickup truck decked out in 9/11 themes and the names of hundreds of responders who were killed in the terror attacks.

They put themselves out there as a charity, but now one of the two men being investigated claims that they were never a charity; they were simply seeking donations for the costs for parading around in their 9/11 themed truck. That's such a transparent and flimsy excuse that it wont keep them from getting hit with fraud and other charges.

A judge ordered Mark Niemczyk and Thomas Scalgione’s red truck, which bears the names of those killed in the Sept. 11 attacks, be impounded.

The judge also ordered that the men’s assets be frozen after the state alleged the two failed to register as a charity, collected money and kept it for themselves.

But speaking exclusively to CBS 2 on Friday, Niemczyk said he’s innocent.

“Please believe me that I didn’t do anything wrong, from the bottom of my heart,” Niemczyk told CBS 2′s Christine Sloan.

The two men are accused of using donations for their personal gain.

“We weren’t a charity, that was never a charity. I never said we were a charity,” Niemczyk said.

Niemczyk said the two drove the red truck around to 9/11 events and collected money only for the operation of the vehicle. He claimed Scalgione was in charge of the money.

“We had a jug on the table and it said on the jug ‘please help keep the 9/11 truck on the road — all donations are greatly appreciated,’” Niemczyk said. “People put money in the jug and that went for our gas and tolls and stuff like that.”

Their problems are only beginning. They weren't registered as a charity and they don't appear to have any paperwork backing up any of their claims that they were acting within the law. What we're also seeing is that one of the two scammers is more than willing to try and throw the other under the bus.

New Jersey Goes After 9/11 Scammers Who Fooled Everyone, Including Gov. Christie

I've got to go back through my catalog of photos taken in and around Ground Zero, because I recall seeing these guys out there on a semi-regular basis. They have a very distinctive 9/11 themed pickup truck, and onlookers would frequently pose with the drivers near the WTC Memorial Preview Center on Vesey as well as on Dey Street and other locations surrounding Ground Zero.

They managed to fool lots of folks, including Governor Chris Christie, who posed with one of the pair of scammers, Anthony Niemczyk. Niemcyzk claimed that he was a Vietnam veteran and was a member of the Navy SEALs. None of that was true.

He was a scammer, as was his cohort Thomas J. Scalgioneo:

State officials have asked that a judge impound the truck and order Mark Anthony Niemczyk and Thomas J. Scalgione to stop scamming the public with their unregistered charity.

One cause the defendants the duo claimed to support, the Cain Foundation, doesn't even exist, New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa said.

Rosemary Cain, whose firefighter son died on 9-11, said she was never contacted by the pair and has no connection to them.

Chiesa called the case "an affront to everyone who remembers the fallen and to the family members who continue to endure pain from the lives that were lost among the first responders at the World Trade Center. It is beyond comprehension that anyone would try to profit themselves under the guise of collecting donations to help the surviving family members of the fallen emergency responders."
Niemczyk, r., with Pastor Terry Jones in "The National 9/11 Memorial Truck"


Both men "used a national tragedy to dupe the public," the attorney general said. "Rather than aiding the families of first responders who perished, [they] are causing additional emotion distress through their alleged avarice and greed."

State authorities "are the ones trying to run a scam," Scalgione countered, after being contacted by the Asbury Park Press this afternoon. “We are prepared to fight to clear our names. We are running a legitimate group."

The National 9/11 Memorial Truck, as it is called, bears the names of the more than 400 first responders who died when the Twin Towers collapsed.

The duo made money off the 9/11 attacks and benefited from a bogus charity that wasn't registered. Both have a long criminal record to boot:

Niemczyk apparently lied about being a graduate of the Naval Academy and having done three Vietnam tours as a Navy SEAL. He also pleaded guilty to welfare fraud in 1989. Scalgione, who said he handled PR for the truck's appearance, has criminal convictions, "including theft, forgery, fraudulent use of credit cards and possession of an emergency communications receiver during the commission of a crime," according to the NJ AG's office.

Expect additional charges to be forthcoming for both.

Scam Season

Well, we've been in our house for little over six months and this was the first real warm weekend here in Northern New Jersey. That means it's time for scam season to begin blooming.

We had our introduction this afternoon as I was busy cleaning up after painting our hallway and Mrs. Lawhawk was watching television. There was a ring at our doorbell and a guy was at the door wondering if we wanted to have our driveway repaired.

Mrs. Lawhawk called me down and I proceeded to listen to the spiel. Let's just say, it sounded pretty familiar.

The guy, who never gave his name, claimed that he had just come from another work site and had some leftover asphalt and that for the "cheap price of $4 per square foot", he could go ahead and refinish our driveway. I told him I wasn't interested and that he should leave his business card. Sadly, he said that he didn't have any on him.

Let's break this down:

1. A good asphalt paving company will know how much materials are needed for a job and will deliver only as much as needed.
2. You can't simply drive by my house and claim that you've got spare asphalt. I live on a cul-de-sac. You've got to be trolling for unsuspecting homeowners who are going to be taken in for scam.
3. The guy's driving a shiny car that doesn't provide any markings or business decals on it (and in retrospect should have probably taken down the plates to alert the authorities that these guys were out and about).
4. The guy was simply going to thrown asphalt down on top of an already degraded surface? That's not how to get the job done right. You have to properly prepare the surface, including getting rid of the existing blacktop and leveling it properly.
5. Would you ever give a job to a guy who comes right off the street without any references or knowledge about his work? I certainly wouldn't.

I interviewed three roofers for a job that is starting this week, and have dealt with about six or seven garage door guys looking for a company we were comfortable with and would be in our price range. Our home is our most expensive and prized possession. We're not going to hand over a chunk of change to some guy who will probably take the money and run without doing any work, or worse demand additional payment after he starts.

These scams are found throughout the country and here's just a sampling of what you can find on Attorney General pages: New York, Missouri, Iowa, Arizona, and North Dakota.

Without fail, these con arts will take people's hard earned money and leave them with big headaches. As we head into the spring, watch out for the con arts coming out of the woodwork.

Sensible precautions can help weed out the con artists from good contractors. They include:

• Obtain several estimates from different contractors.
• Be wary of requests for money up front without work being performed.
• Obtain a list of references.
• Get everything in writing.
  
• Do not be pressured into agreeing to anything you do not understand or do not want.
• Check with the Better Business Bureau and the Consumer Protection Bureau at the Attorney General's Office to see if complaints have been lodged about the companies.
• Avoid paying cash for any work done as it becomes impossible to track down contractors who take the money and run. Checks and credit cards provide a paper trail and a certain measure of protection against fraud.
  
• Deposits should generally be about 30% of the price - dicker on the terms if the company is demanding more up front. Avoid giving over all the agreed-upon price before the work is completed and you've signed off on all work. Once you've paid over the amount due, you've lost leverage to fix any problems or assure that the work will be completed in a timely fashion.
  

We've used a service called ServiceMagic, which has led us to finding several leads for work done on the house. We found a company that refinished our floors through them, but in other instances, we've found that word of mouth references from friends and colleagues to be helpful. They are helpful in that they provide licensing information and references, along with guides for how to select contractors for specific jobs and what is involved in various projects.

Still, many people are taken in by these scams annually, especially senior citizens. These con artists prey on those who don't know any better or think that they're getting a good deal to get work done. It couldn't be further from the truth.