Dennis Ricca (left) was one of Jay Lenos' co-defendants in a car-swindle lawsuit.
[ Photo of Ricca: Victor Alcom/NY Post | Photo of Leno: AP ]
Manhattan parking garage executive Dennis Ricca killed himself the day after the New York Post reported that he and Jay Leno are being sued by the estate of deceased Macy's heir John Straus for illegally auctioning off two of his rare antique cars, according to Page Six.
Ricca shot himself in the head on Friday. His mourners are saying that the lawsuit is what caused him to do it, the Post says.
Straus, who died in May 2008, had been storing the two cars — 1931 Duesenberg Model J valued at $1.2 million and a 1930 Rolls-Royce Phantom convertible valued at $500,000 — in the Windsor Garage on the Upper East Side (where Ricca was one of the execs) for around 50 years and was more than $20,000 behind in storage fees, Ricca claimed. (The estate's lawyers deny that.)
According to the Post, the suit filed on Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court alleges that:
Straus, who was in his 80s and beginning to suffer from dementia, sent in a check for the $22,000 bill, but the garage sent it back to him, saying he now owed $36,000.
Ricca then auctioned off the cars for non-payment of fees.
Jay Leno, who reportedly had been trying to get the Deusenberg for years, bought the $1.2 millon car for $180,000 (see pic below) and Ricca got the Rolls-Royce for the roundest of all numbers: $0.
Even if the auction was technically legal — which is a matter of dispute — it just doesn't seem right. The suit alleges:
Leno was far less concerned with the bona fides of the underlying purported auction and sale, than with achieving his long awaited purchase of this one of a kind Model J."
We have to ask Jay: Was it worth it?
[ Photo: Bitten&Bound ]
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Comments
Jay is a collector of fame of these old cars. He would not be involved in some shady deal to get a car, because he has the money not to have to worry about getting something under the table. Besides it's not like he doesn't have a mailing address and is some king of recluse. Everybody knows where he lives and where his shop is out there in California. People see him on the road all the time driving his cars, it's a common sight. And the last time I checked if a person doesn't settle up on storage fees, the storage place has the legal authority to sell whatever it is being stored to pay the bill. And if you lose something like that, then to bad it's your fault. It's called "pay your bills".
The Windsor Garage does not belong to Dennis Ricca - he is not the owner. He was the operations guy for the company that owns it. Nowhere do you mention that there are other people allegedly involved in this situation. Give his family some peace.
As for Mr. Leno - he owns 4 other Duesenbergs, so he knows the value of the car in general, and knows the value of this particular car because he tried to buy it once before from the owner, but was told it would not be sold, ever!!
Jay Leno knew it was worth over $1 million, so when offered the car for $180,000 he would know it was a little "odd" that the price was so low. There is some culpability there. If it's too good to be true, it isn't.
just goes to show ya leno is piece of dirt..he probally put tremendous pressure on the suicide victim over getting the car and he couldn't take it..my prayers to the family and i see jay leno
Dennis was one of the hardest working guy that anyone can come across.
He prided himself for being honest. So when he is given a car worth 30K not 500K mint condition car, he takes it under direction of his boss.
Th car was not worth anything more than 30K, It was rotting away in a basement of the garage for over 20 years.
Now that this has become public,His boss should come out and explain the complicated circumstances behind the car. explain why he got the car instead of his bonus for the year.........
it is so easy to screw over the small guy.
God Bless
Thanks for all of your comments. As mentioned in the article, Dennis Ricca is "one of the co-defendants" in this lawsuit. There were others involved as well. If you click the highlighted link to the New York Post article, you will get many more details. | Liz Barrett |
thank you TNA Dennis Ricca was one of the smartest men in his field and by far the hardest working man I have ever had the pleasure to work for. I will be forever grateful for skills I learned from that man.He will be greatly missed by many.RIP Dennis
"Was it worth it?" Simply put, "Yes."
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