Since I was an Accounting Major at the time I had to work 20 hours a week in the field of Accounting. Price Waterhouse, Ernst & Ernst, Arthur Andersen, Chase, lots of prestigious potential employers were interviewing on campus. The deal was you got paid for 20 hours a week and you also got weekly reports sent to your accounting professor detailing your progress which was then included in the grade you got for that semester.
Dressed in my finest suit, polished shoes, well the same outfit I wore when crashing weddings and playing double bass in the New York Youth Philharmonic I interviewed aggressively. After all I would be with this organization for 4 years and could possibly graduate with a job waiting for me if I am an outstanding intern.
I got my notice in the mail. Classes ended at 2:00PM and by 3:00PM I knocked on my new bosses door reporting for my first day as an intern… at the New York City Transit Authority Department of Special Audits. And that is where I stayed for 5 years.
I had many an interesting job with the Department of Special Audits. Their main job was fraud investigation, inventory and payroll audits, and concession audit and verification.
I was given a free transportation pass good for the NYC Subway and Bus system, a subway map, and a couple of rolls of quarters. My first assignment was to perform an audit on the soda pop machines in the NYC Subway system. The owners of the soda pop vending machines paid rent to place the vending machine in a particular location and the NYC Transit Authority got a percentage of sales.
For 3 weeks I randomly rode the subways getting off at various stops and hunting down these soda pop vending machines. I’d check their serial number, make note of the level of cleanliness and slip a quarter into the vending machine and make note if a cup was dispensed or NOT and if I was lucky enough to find a working machine that dispensed a cup rated the taste bad/acceptable/good.
At times I was bored out of my gourd however you would be surprised at the number of “illegal” vending machines I found (they were in places that they were not supposed to be and the NYCTA had no record of those serial numbers.) as well as the number of machines that were out of service.
Nick Seglia my boss at NYCTA thought I did a good job and gave me another even more challenging experience. For 2 months I rode almost every bus in the city auditing the ads that were displayed in each bus. This advertising was a gold mine for the NYCTA and they wanted documentation of what ads were on what busses and then verified.
Again I impressed Nick with the quality of my work. And again Nick rewarded me with an even bigger responsibility.
I was called into Nick’s office and told to shut the door. Once settled in my chair Nick informed me that I was going “undercover” Hot damn I felt just like James Bond and I was only 19.
Nick and his boss were convinced that the doughnut shop owner at the 34th St. station in Manhattan was giving free doughnuts to the Transit Police as well as not ringing up all sales thus screwing the NYCTA out of their fair share of the profits. Since it was the summer and ungodly hot in the subway Nick needed an undercover auditor to capture this guy. My job was to dress like a hippy, like that was hard for me, with shorts, sandals and a grubby tee-shirt. Nick then told me that I am NOT to discuss my assignment with anyone. If by some chance a NYCTA Transit Police officer should ask me a question I was to answer… “I’m waiting for a friend.
Just a tad after 9:00 AM and I’m standing in front of the doughnut shop watching as several transit police officers sat at the counter drinking coffee and eating doughts, doughnuts, and more doughnuts and not paying for any of it. I also saw the proprietor of the doughnut shop not ring up several transactions which I captured the time and what I witnessed in a little hand held pad I had. I kept track of the free doughnuts with one of those hand held counters.
After 2 hours of standing there and walking around a Transit Police Officer came over to me and asked me what I’m doing. I replied that I was waiting for a friend. The Transit Cop said, “I don’t think your friend is coming. So move on.” I said I’m just going to wait a bit longer. The Transit Cop then said to me that he didn’t think I was waiting for a friend at all. He thought I was casing the doughnut shop to rob it. I denied it. He said to move on and I didn’t.
So Mr. Transit Cop took me into custody! Doing what Nick Seglia told me to do I said nothing. Then they put me in a room with an interrogator. I sat there with him for about 2 hours but still did not say a word. Then a Transit Police Captain came in and asked me some questions. At that point I said, “My name is Mitchell Levy and I’m with the Department of Special Audits and I was watching that doughnut shop because we don’t think they are documenting all sales AND we think that the Transit Police are getting free doughnuts.” The Captain looked at me and said show me your ID. I reached into my back pocket and… nothing! Somebody stole my damn NYCTA ID and FREE PASS!
I sat there calmly and said if you don’t believe me call Nick Seglia and he will clear me. The Captain called Nick. The Captain asked Nick if I worked for him and Nick said, “I don’t know any Mitchell Levy!”
Once again I was being interrogated but this time they weren’t so “nice.” Just when I was about to fall apart the door opened and there stood Nick. He looked at me and smiled and said, “Oh that Mitch Levy, yeah he’s one of my boys!”