Thief free on P.R.

One of the most astonishing things to me about the Dixon, Ill. $53,000,000 heist is that the former comptroller, Rita Crundwell, 59, is free on a personal recognizance bond.

Know what happens if you get arrested in Woodstock for sticky fingers at the Walmart? Say, maybe you try to get away with a $20 movie? You get carted over to the McHenry County Jail with maybe a $1,500 bond, and there you sit until you can come up with $150.

No matter that it costs the County $90/day to house you. You might sit there a week or two, or longer through multiple court hearings.

But, if your name is Rita and you stick it to Dixon, Ill. for $53,000,000, your name is good enough to get you out the door.

Rita pled guilty today and faces 17-19 in the pen and agreed that she owes Dixon $53,740,394. Like they'll ever see that; right? Think they'll take a check?

And where is she? Out, walking around, because her name is Rita.

She's 59. Think she'll go to the joint for 17 years? That would make her 76. Why wouldn't she take off? Now they probably grabbed her passport. How long do you think it would take her to get another one? You know the kind - from the alley off Maxwell Street...

Besides, do you need a passport to get out of the U.S.? Or just back in. Why would she want "back in"? Did she have some bucks tucked away for a rainy day that the Feds didn't find?

Was everybody asleep in Dixon for 20 years? Didn't anyone wonder how an $80,000/year employee could afford all the toys she had?

Maybe now that the FBI is done in Dixon, they can come over to little, ol' Woodstock and spend a few weeks here. They won't find a caper like that here (probably) but, if they stand downwind in certain places in town, the stink will tickle their noses.