#MTA worker caught having sex at railyard — while on overtime

The taxpayers weren’t the only ones getting screwed.

A Metro-North worker resigned last month after the MTA’s watchdog caught him having sex with a woman at a railyard — while collecting overtime pay, according to a new report.

Investigators from the office of MTA Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny observed the machinist, a 25-year veteran, bring an unauthorized woman onto the grounds of the Croton-Harmon property three times last spring — including at least one time that got steamy, according to the report, set to be publicized later Monday.

On May 16, OIG gumshoes observed the man and woman — neither of whom is identified by name in the report — “kiss and have intimate contact” in a railroad storage yard “behind the open door” of the woman’s Nissan Pathfinder, according to the document.

The trainyard tryst — which went down a mere 10 to 15 feet from tracks “clearly” labeled “No Entry Except Authorized Vehicles,” according to the report — occurred in the middle of the man’s overtime shift and lasted an impressive 77 minutes, GPS data from the machinist’s MTA-issued truck shows.

Thirteen days later, investigators from Pokorny’s office observed the man bring the woman to the same Metro-North facility for “an extended lunch,” the report said.

Investigators caught the machinist taking longer-than-permitted lunch breaks off of MTA property on five other occasions, including one meeting with the female companion that lasted more than three hours.

But the couple’s afternoon delights were hardly confined to work hours.

The machinist’s daytime shifts typically ended six hours before his overtime shifts, in between which he was permitted to go home and rest.

But over the course of the IG’s three-month probe, the machinist would make a nightly two- to three-hour stop at a parking lot on West Street in Peekskill.

On four instances, the OIG observed the man drive off with the woman after leaving the MTA’s truck at the lot.

GPS data showed the man returning a few hours later to drive the truck back to work.

Under MTA regulations, agency vehicles must be driven to work and back home via the “most direct way possible.”

Yet IG investigators identified dozens of additional times the man used his MTA-issued vehicle on days, driving it to the West Street lot or a nearby rail crossing on 32 separate occasions, and leaving it there overnight.

Confronted by investigators, the machinist pleaded ignorance on the railroad’s policy on use of company vehicles.

He also claimed to have only begun parking the car away from home when the COVID-19 pandemic hit to protect a family member with an underlying health condition.

In reality, the man had been making hours-long stops on the way between home and work since 2019, GPS data showed, according to the report.

He was brought up on disciplinary charges in December, and resigned after a Jan. 20 disciplinary hearing, the IG said.

“Metro-North has zero tolerance for theft of time or appropriation of resources for personal use,” said MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan.

“This employee was suspended without pay and subsequently resigned, and we are reviewing ways to improve accountability.”

The railyard Romeo was snared amid a years-long crackdown by the OIG’s office on overtime cheats.

Additional reporting by Aaron Feis