MBTA retiree accused of skimming $40,700. Snatched coins, tokens, police say.

[Ian David]

By Mac Daniel, Globe Staff | March 6, 2007

For years, MBTA Transit Police say, the electrician stole bucketsful of T tokens and coins from fare vending machines, unnoticed by anyone.

It was only when T workers spotted him trying to convert the tokens into the T's plastic fare cards that investigators uncovered one of the largest thefts in the agency's history, police said yesterday.

Police charged Robert P. Gibson, a 69-year-old electrician who worked for the T for 20 years before retiring last October, with skimming $40,700 from machines he fixed. Investigators didn't know anything was amiss until workers at Wellington station on the Orange Line spotted the balding T retiree in a blue ski jacket and glasses feeding tokens into new fare vending machines day after day late last year.

Stranger still, Gibson, who left the authority last year making $79,500 a year in base pay, had a free lifetime retiree pass to ride the system. "So why does he need all these CharlieCards?" asked Deputy Chief Paul MacMillan.

Using the T's new surveillance cameras, investigators began tracking Gibson in January as he regularly fed the machines at Wellington between 3 and 4 p.m. almost daily.


MBTA video allegedly shows a retired employee who came regularly to turn in stolen coins and tokens for CharlieCards. (Jodi Hilton for the Boston Globe)

More:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/03/06/mbta_retiree_accused_of_skimming_40700/

[Breeze54]

1. He was either

"T workers spotted him trying to convert the tokens into the T's plastic fare cards"

selling them or giving them to his friends and family!

Very astute of the T workers to notice he was retired! ;)
What a scam artist! I wonder how many more are doing this!
I'll bet there are more!

Thanks for posting this. ;)

[Ian David]

2. The T typically loses more to employee theft than to fare jumpers. n/t