BART Agent Facing Discipline For Giving Unused Tickets To Teen
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) - A Bay Area Rapid Transit station agent was trying to do the right thing when he gave a struggling teenager a break on is transit fare, but that action could have the do-gooder facing charges.
Jim Stanek could lose his job for giving a family friend about $300 worth of paid, but unused, BART tickets that commuters had left behind. The boy from Oakley used them to pay for the $11 trip from the Pittsburg / Bay Point station to San Francisco, where he attends the Flex Academy charter school.
Stanek faces a disciplinary hearing Friday, and he said he could be looking at criminal proceedings for stealing BART property.
"The rules are very clear...those tickets are like cash to BART," said transit spokesman Jim Allison. "The integrity of the system depends upon how they're handling the cash… and the tickets properly."
According to Allison, tickets are supposed to be turned over to lost-and-found, or they go to the agency's treasury department.
The teen's principal said the situation doesn't make sense.
"He hasn't had many breaks in his life," said Principal Royce Conner of Flex Academy. "To have this happen to the good Samaritan who's helping...does hurt my feelings to hear...this is a student who needs more breaks in his life."
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