Posted on June 22, 2005

Cash Counter Nabbed for Alleged Thievery

Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross, San Francisco Chronicle, June 22

Yet another Muni worker has been busted for alleged theft — and this time it’s a veteran supervisor accused of pocketing cash.

According to officials of San Francisco’s transit system, the case came to light when a fellow worker noticed that some of the piles of cash were coming up short at the Municipal Railway’s Presidio revenue collection center — where tens of thousands of dollars in fare revenue is sorted, counted and bundled each day.

Muni promptly contacted the police and district attorney’s office, and soon extra video surveillance cameras were put up. A few days back, Muni spokeswoman Maggie Lynch said, authorities arrested Marcelino Contreras, a $56, 000-a-year senior revenue collection supervisor, for allegedly stealing an undisclosed amount of cash during the four months he was under surveillance.

Contreras, 64, was arrested June 8 in the parking lot at the end of his shift — just as he was getting into his brand-new Jeep Liberty, according to Muni officials.

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