Long Island fire chief used department vehicle to cheat on his wife

A Long Island fire chief was asked to resign after village officials found out he had been using his department vehicle to carry on an extramarital affair.

Documents recently obtained by News 12 Long Island revealed that former East Rockaway Fire Chief Steven Torborg, who resigned on March 22, had been sneaking around and making late-night stops at a remote off-site location in his department ride.

East Rockaway officials told Torborg that he would "face charges regarding conduct unbecoming a chief officer of the department and the misuse of his assigned official village vehicle" if he didn’t step down, according to News 12.

Torborg was flagged after his GPS records showed that he made a 1 ½-hour nighttime stop at a “remote and wooded location” near Garden City. Village attorney John Ryan enlisted the help of a private eye to track the chief’s vehicle. The investigator found Torborg and a Levittown woman (who was not his wife) “in various stages of undress,” according to the documents.

Records state that Torborg went to the wooded site in his vehicle 12 times between Dec. 9 and March 18. He also spent three hours at the Pine Motor Lodge in Westbury one night.

Ryan told News 12 Long Island that Torborg gave his friends and family a different version of the story behind his resignation, which prompted the mayor to send a letter to the East Rockaway Fire Council notifying them of the village’s findings.

“It's one of the classic cases of a self-inflicted wound by the chief," Ryan said to Newsday.

Torborg, however, told News 12 in a statement that the details from village officials don’t provide the whole story.

"The allegations of the report that has been anonymously mailed to the news media give an inaccurate and incomplete picture of the circumstances surrounding my resignation," he said.

Edward Reicherter took over Torborg’s position at the volunteer department. Ryan said whether Torborg can remain a member of the department is up to the fire council, according to Newsday.

Calls to the fire department and village officials were not immediately returned.