PSU worker accused of theft

Sara Ganim

STATE COLLEGE — A Penn State employee has been charged with stealing $10,880 from the university by forging his boss’ signature on timecards.

University police say Thomas L. Smeal, 24, had submitted 318 fraudulent pay sheets while working at the Office of the Physical Plant from 2006 through April.

“Penn State has little tolerance for that kind of thing,” university police director Steve Shelow said.

An auditor and payroll manager caught Smeal, of Morrisdale. He is the fourth Penn State employee caught stealing on the job this year.

“There’s an increase,” Shelow said. “One is too many and we are seeing a few more than we would like to see.”

Smeal told police he started signing his boss’s name because the boss wasn’t around when he submitted his timecards and he wanted to get paid on time.

After a while, he said, he’d pay himself for hours he didn’t work as well, “because he would go out the night before and start coming in later and later and no one would say anything,” police wrote in charging papers.

This went on for three years, police said.

When his boss reviewed the timecards Smeal submitted, he said he knew they were forged because Smeal had written the date differently.

Smeal’s supervisor told police he always writes the date with the year in front of the month and day.

When police told him that he’d stolen about $10,880, he said, “that sounds about right,” police wrote.

Sara Ganim can be reached at 231-4616.