WASHINGTON – A Metro station manager is accused of taking paper farecards and loading their value onto SmarTrip cards so that he could sell them.
Metro Transit Police say Kenneth Peters of Falls Church was arrested last week after a months-long internal investigation.
Police say that Peters took the paper farecards of passengers whose cards did not have enough money left to exit Metro, allowing those passengers to leave the system for free. Peters should have directed those passengers to add value to the cards using the ExitFare machines, placed inside the turnstiles at each station.
Metro says Peters’ scheme was detected by the transit agency’s internal control processes.
The 44-year-old has worked for Metro since 1999. Peters is charged with felony embezzlement and has been suspended pending the outcome of the case.
NBC 4 was first to report his arrest.
Metro says it cannot provide exact totals for how much money the agency lost because the investigation is ongoing.
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