Evening star., 1947-05-02

Six Transit Workers
Held III $500 Bond;
SIC. 600 Loot chorqed
Six employees or the Capital
Transit Co. have been charged
with the theft and resale Of more
than $10,0 worth OF streetcar
tokens while police said today
that more arrests are expectdl
momentarily.
The six were arrested Yesterday
as the climax of an Investigation
begun q month ago by the transit
company when large quantities Of
tokens began to show up In the
wrong places. Police reported about
10000 tokens were recovered.
The six men were taken before
United States Commissioner Need
nam g. Turnage yesterday and re-
leased in $500 bond each for : pre-
liminary hearing on May 20.
Four Accused Of Larceny.
Charged with grand larceny are.
James H. Byerly, 81, of 14i5
James Creek parkway S.W., Is years
with the company.
: Lawrence w. Posey, 23. of 330f
Prospect avenue NV, 3h years
service.
Thomas G. Hollowell, 90, Of 37oe
Fortieth place, Cottage City, Nd. 20
years service.
William A. Turner, Il, Of 7728
Garrison road, Lanham, Md, eight
years service.
Charged with receiving stolen
property are:
Chester w. Little, IS, Of 434i
Chesapeake street NV, i've years
service.
Alfred g. Pearce, 81, Of 7s v street
NV, four years service.
Duties Explained.
Byerly, Posey, Hollowen and Tur.
ner were employed by the transit
company as collectors, e. G. Gid
dings, company vice president, said.
He explained that their duties were
to take cash boxes from the street.
cars and buses, place the cash and
tokens from the days run into
pouches which were then sealed and
turn the pouches over to the finan-
cial department Of the company.
Little and Pearce were employed
as depot clerks. Mr.. Giddings said.
Their duties, he added, were to is
sue cash and tokens to the drivers
each morning.
The thefts apparently had been
going on for some time, possibly two
years, Mr.. Gfddings said.
The sudden flood of tokens IN
the past month undoubtedly was
caused by the fact that a Public Util-
tiles Commission ruling In response
to the company's request that q
straight 10-cent fare be substituted
for the tokens Is expected soon.
Mr. Gidding1 Explained
Company Calls In Police. &
After company Investigators,
headed by Ernest Boyd. superin-
tendent Of transportation, almost
had completed the investigation,
police were called In early this week,
according to Mr.. Giddings.
The men were arrested by Detec-
tives F. r. Gaver and G. w. Chap
man as they were working ut car
barns yesterday at Georgia avenue
and v street NV. and at Four
teenth and Decatur streets NV.
This is how the thefts and resale
were managed, according to Mr..
Giddings:
Each bus and streetcar operator
gets certain amount of cash.
tokens and weekly passes as he be-
gins his daily route. These are re-
ceived from clerks at the depots.
At the end OF the day the tokens
on hand, the cash on hand and the
streetcar passes on hand must bal
ance out.
In addition, the cash and tokens
in the deposit box in the front Of
the vehicle must be counted.
Sold at Reduced Price.
As the operators complete their
days work, collectors take the cash
box from the vehicle. This cash box
is locked and cannot be opened by
the operators. These boxes are
stacked by the collectors who open
them later and place the coins and
tokens in sealed pouches for deliv-
cry to the financial department OF
the company.
The thefts occurred at this point
In the procedure, according to the
company and police.
The accused collectors are charged
with removing part OF the tokens
from the cash boxes instead of
placing them in the sealed pouches.
These tokens then were sold at
reduced price to fences who, In
turn. sold them to the streetcar
passengers, according to police and
company investigators.
Police said they recovered $400 In
marked money which was passed by
undercOver men posing as feY,ces