Logo

A scorned lover snitched on her LIRR worker ex-beau for having a rendezvous with her at a local motel while he was collecting overtime pay, a report said Wednesday.

The railroad crane engineer, a 25-year LIRR employee, admitted to just one illicit dalliance in November 2020 — even though the ex-girlfriend claimed the two met multiple times over the course of a year, the MTA Inspector General’s Office said.

The engineer, who was not named by the IG’s office, bragged to his future ex that he was on the clock and even showed up once in an LIRR truck accompanied by his work partner, she claimed.

IG investigators corroborated the woman’s claim to have spent the night at a hotel in Medford on Nov. 21. The accused MTA worker admitted to one instance of skipping work to fool around.

“While he could not remember the exactly date or month, he recalled he had met her once at the hotel in Medford, NY while working an overnight overtime tour,” Acting IG Elizabeth Keating wrote.

“The Crane Engineer was supposed to be working a 24-hour overtime shift, from 4:00 a.m. on November 21 to 4:00 a.m. on November 22; instead, for a portion of that time he was with the complainant at the hotel.”


  The probe was only the latest overtime cheating scandal to hit the LIRR in recent years. Christopher Sadowski for NY Post The probe was only the latest overtime cheating scandal to hit the LIRR in recent years. Christopher Sadowski for NY Post

Investigators also dinged the LIRR vet for making “over 100 calls” to the woman using an MTA-issued cellphone, a violation of LIRR policy prohibiting the use of such devices for personal calls that “conflict with the proper exercise of the duties of the employee.”

Railroad officials handed out the 90-day suspension without pay in September in response to the IG’s findings, the report said.

The probe was only the latest overtime cheating scandal to hit the LIRR in recent years.

Several former employees pleaded guilty this year to defrauding the MTA through an overtime scheme in which they would cover for each other’s absences.

The crew of co-conspirators raked in “improbable” amounts of OT pay by using union seniority to land jobs on mega-projects where they could get away with sleeping or playing hooky out of view of MTA management.

“The MTA takes overtime abuses seriously,” MTA spokesman Sean Butler said in a statement.

“This Crane Engineer’s actions violated the public trust and the MTA has since disciplined the individual. The Authority has aggressively tackled time theft and implemented new controls to substantially increase oversight and accountability.”

Comments
anonymous profile image
Powered by RoundtableBuilt on infrastructure designed for real-time media. Learn more at RTB.io.© Roundtable 2026. By using this site you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy