Ex-Employees Scheduled to Enter Pleas in Metro Thefts

Two former Metro workers accused of stealing potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in coins from fare card machines are scheduled to enter guilty pleas in federal court.

Court records in Alexandria, Va., show plea hearings scheduled Monday for Horace McDade, of Bowie, Md., and John Haile, of Woodbridge. The two were arrested in January.

Prosecutors launched the investigation after getting reports that Haile routinely pulled up in a Jaguar to a store in Woodbridge with $500 bags of coins to buy lottery tickets. Lottery records show Haile had more than $60,000 in reportable winnings since 2008 and bank records show unexplained cash deposits of more than $150,000.

Surveillance caught both hiding bags of coins underneath an overpass, according to an affidavit.

Calls to the two men's lawyers were not returned.