Photo by moworld

Two Metro workers were arrested last night and face charges of stealing over $150,000 from fare machines, a good chunk of which went towards buying lottery tickets. WTOP has the details:

Authorities on Wednesday night arrested Horace Dexter McDade, 58, of Bowie, Md., and John Vincent Haile, 54, of Woodbridge, Va. McDade has worked for Metro since 1979, servicing fare vending machines at rail stations, while Haile has worked for the Metro Transit Police Department since 1997. His position involved providing protection and security for revenue technicians.

The two allegedly stole bags of coins while making their rounds to collect funds from Metro vending machines. The pair made unscheduled stops to conceal the funds at an underpass near a Courtyard Marriott Hotel in Alexandria, according to an affidavit filed in the case.

Officials say that in the last three months of 2011, Haile made $28,000 in lottery ticket purchases with cash and coins, often paying for the tickets with $500 bags of coins. Bank records indicate he has had unexplained cash deposits of more than $150,000 since 2008, and the affidavit says Haile has received nearly $63,000 in Virginia Lottery payouts since 2008 — often winning multiple times a month.

McDade and Haile must have taken inspiration from William Fell, the Alexandria parking meter technician who in 2009 was busted for having stolen over $170,000 in nickels, dimes and quarters from meters. (Unlike McDade and Haile, Fell kept all of his coins at home.) Doing some back-of-the-napkin calculations, the two came away with just over $180,000 when you consider what they stole from Metro, what they spent on lottery tickets and what they ended up winning.