Let’s remember when six people were arrested for embezzling tolls from the 520 bridge, on this day in 1975 (June 18)
This is quite an ingenious grift, even if taxpayers were the ones being grifted.
On June 18, 1975, six toll takers at the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge are arrested and accused of embezzling toll proceeds. The bridge (later more commonly known as the “520 bridge” for State Route 520, the highway that it carries) crosses Lake Washington from Seattle’s Montlake neighborhood to Evergreen Point in Medina. An assistant cashier is arrested the next day. An audit subsequently pegs the loss at $280,768 and says that the fraud stretches back to 1972. The evidence includes film footage obtained by two King County investigators surreptitiously filming the toll takers from 200 yards away. Six of the seven arrested are charged with fraud and convicted.
And how did they do it?
From its opening in 1963 until 1979, the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge was a toll bridge. In those days electronic tolling was still years away, and tolls were collected by toll takers in booths set up in a neat row called a “toll plaza,” located on the highway just east of the bridge. Tolls were 35 cents per vehicle, but thrifty commuters could save by buying a ticket book. In 1975 a ticket book was $5 for a book of 26 tickets, which equated to 19.23 cents a ticket.
Eventually dishonest bridge employees figured out how to game the system — and eventually they got caught. On June 18, 1975, six toll takers were arrested, and an assistant cashier was arrested the next day. Prosecutors quickly filed fraud charges against five of the toll takers, alleging they stole cash using two different methods. The first involved toll takers buying ticket books at the reduced price and then substituting tickets for cash paid by motorists — a profit of nearly 16 cents a ticket. The second involved substituting used toll tickets for cash at the end of the day — a profit of 35 cents a ticket. Though seemingly pocket change, this added up fast given the thousands of cars that crossed the bridge daily; it was estimated that some of the fraudsters were netting as much as $600 a month. The state auditor’s office eventually evaluated the loss at $280,768.30 ($1,245,390 in 2015 dollars) and said the theft occurred in a 32-month period between November 1972 and June 1975.
That’s a lot of money for making $.16 a pop!
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