Posted on 01/25/2013 10:46:17 AM PST by Olog-hai
A New York grand jury has indicted 15 Long Island Rail Road workers and two others accusing them of participating in the theft of copper wiring.
The suspects surrendered Friday and said nothing as they turned themselves in to face charges, 1010 WINS’ Mona Rivera reported. Eight of the defendants pleaded not guilty on Friday morning. The remainder will be arraigned later in the day. …
Some of the workers accused in the scheme are accused of ripping up old copper wire as it was being replaced in Jamaica, West Islip and Babylon yards and instead of handing it over to the MTA, the workers allegedly used LIRR middlemen to get the copper to scrapyards, CBS 2’s Jennifer McLogan reported. During the two-year investigation, prosecutors allege sales of the copper netted the thieves upwards of $200,000. …
(Excerpt) Read more at newyork.cbslocal.com ...
“You’ll never take me alive, Copper!”
All union members ?
My guess is these loyal union employees were not kicking back enough up the line.
Nearly the entire staff of the LIRR are crooks in one way or the other. Until very recently, about 90% of retirees were claiming and receiving disability pay for life (on top of the generous pension they already get) when they retired. Many have already plead guilty to this fraud.
Many conductors (ticket takers) make $150K to 200K (one made $239,000 in 2010)through an overtime scheme (totally legal in the union contract) a year for doing a job that requires barely minimum wage skills.
Working behind the counter at Taco Bell require far more skills than walking up and down a train aisle saying, “tickets please”.
“I’ve been stealin on the railroad, all the live-long day.”
The union will save their jobs and benefits.
Heck, they will probably demand a letter of apology from the Long Island Rail Road for each of the criminals.
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