NEWARK — A day after Thomas Calcagni, the state’s consumer watchdog, vowed to crack down on predatory tow truck drivers, he caught one in the act while at his dry cleaner in Newark. He saw a truck latch onto a car and begin to drive away. A woman gave chase and pleaded with the driver to stop, he said,...
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Thomas Calcagni, director of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, in his office on Halsey Street in downtown Newark. He is working with Neal Buccino (left), the division's public information officer. NEWARK — A day after Thomas Calcagni, the state’s consumer watchdog, vowed to crack down on predatory tow truck drivers, he caught one in the act while at his dry cleaner in Newark.
He saw a truck latch onto a car and begin to drive away. A woman gave chase and pleaded with the driver to stop, he said, but the driver demanded cash. Calcagni leapt from his car.
"Listen, pal, state law requires you release this car without charging this woman a dime," he said he told the driver. The driver spat back, "Who the hell are you?"
The director of the state Division of Consumer Affairs, he said. Not a very sexy title on the gritty streets of Newark. But the crowd of people that grew around the truck was more persuasive, Calcagni said, and the driver released the car.
Since his appointment last year, the 39-year-old former federal prosecutor has turned a quiet arm of state bureaucracy into a powerhouse, one that responds more quickly to consumer complaints and pursues scam artists with tactics rarely used in the past decade.
He’s fined tow truck companies using a law that had never been enforced. He’s led a greater number of undercover stings to expose illegal home contractors and movers. And he’s seized on a little-known power of his office to ban drugs known as "bath salts."
"This division and the areas that it covers touch on really every aspect of your daily life," Attorney General Paula Dow said. "And that’s why upping the game is so important."
Calcagni has raised the profile of the division and gained as much, if not more, attention as when he was prosecuting corrupt politicians.
"There came a point where after a conviction you got the sense that people were like, ‘Oh, another public official taking bribes, big deal,’ " Calcagni said during a recent interview at his Newark office. "But the moment you crack down on a tow truck driver, you’re hailed as a hero."
A native of a small town near Augusta, Maine, Calcagni graduated with a law degree from Seton Hall University in 1997.
He was tapped for the job by Gov. Chris Christie, his former boss at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark. Some people warned him not to take the post because it would be less prestigious, said John Kuhn, a close friend.
"He told me he thought the position hadn’t been used effectively for years," said Kuhn, an assistant U.S. attorney in Kentucky. "He thought that he could make a difference."
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Thomas Calcagni, director of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, at work in his office in downtown Newark. So Calcagni rolled a giant whiteboard into his corner office and turned the division upside down. He reorganized employees and assigned more people to answer consumer calls. For the week ending Aug. 12, the division handled 1,176 calls, and nearly all were resolved, state figures show.
"It was a division that was not consumer-friendly, no one answered the phone, no one responded to letters, and complaints that went there were lost forever," Dow said. "He’s turned that around."
Calcagni assigned investigators to answer phones, which made some veterans unhappy. But he won them over by giving them new freedom to take more cases and set up more undercover stings.
"Tom lit the fire again," said Ron Regen, a 13-year investigator.
For example, the division in June lured unlicensed movers into a sting at a self-storage facility in Bridgewater, resulting in 25 citations. Investigators have also used undercover houses to expose unregistered home improvement contractors in an operation that’s netted 30 citations since last year.
At each sting, Calcagni’s right there in the trenches.
"I’m probably more involved than people want me to be," he said with a laugh.
His tough stand has caught the attention of consumer advocates and the professionals the division oversees. John Glass, president of Garden State Towing Association, said he welcomes the oversight, but worries Calcagni’s crackdown may hurt those who make honest mistakes.
"If you get caught up in this, you almost have no choice but to plead guilty so the fines and penalties don’t get out of hand," Glass said. "There’s a fine line to what they do."
Phyllis Salowe-Kaye, executive director of New Jersey Citizen Action, a government watchdog group, said Calcagni is off to a good start. "He’s got a lot more to do, but I would say in recent times he’s certainly one of the best so far," she said.
Calcagni — a nattily dressed bachelor who during a recent interview with The Star-Ledger sported blue cuff links to match his tie — concedes his busy schedule cuts into his personal pursuits, such as sailing. "I didn’t take this job to get chicks," he joked.
But he said few jobs give him days like the one in March, when he stood up for a stranger whose car was being towed.
"There were handshakes and hugs and I thought, ‘This is what makes this job so special,’ " he said.