A former cleaner employed by the MBTA was charged in connection with a “major theft” of technology from the transit agency worth more than $120,000, prosecutors said.
Marcelo Batista-Sales, 39, of Lynn, is accused of stealing 40 network transceivers from the MBTA IT department and trying to sell them on eBay, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a press release.
Batista-Sales was charged Nov. 24 in the Central Division of Boston Municipal Court with larceny over $1,200, Hayden’s office said Wednesday. Judge Mark Summerville set bail for Batista-Sales at $2,000 and ordered him to keep away from MBTA headquarters.
On Sept. 18, MBTA Transit Police responded to the IT department for a report that 40 Cisco Network modules had been stolen, according to prosecutors. Each module is worth approximately roughly $3,000.
An MBTA official searched eBay to find past sales of the modules and located an account with the username “marcbatist27.” The account had sold 51 of the modules, Hayden’s office said. An investigation led transit police to Batista-Sales, who could access secure areas of the MBTA’s headquarters through his job.
“This is a major theft from a public agency dedicated to moving nearly one million people each day around the metro Boston area, so it’s really a theft from all of us. I thank the MBTA investigators for their work in identifying a person to answer for this offense,” Hayden said.
Batista-Sales is next due in court on Jan. 22 for a pre-trial hearing.