Pothole Patchers - Busted on the Job Classics

good evening I'm Monica Gail and I'm hu Perkins this is going to make you mad take a look at this undercover video These are pothole patching Crews doing everything but they're drinking beer they're smoking and joking and that's not all we busted them doing Fox two Problem Solver Scott Lewis is here with the whole story this is a story I guarantee you'll be talking about in the morning one more reason the roads are so bad around here lazy pothole patchers we've busted on the job take a look what do you think this guy is up to how about this guy what's he laughing about and what's this guy doing well guess what they're all patching potholes at least that's what they're getting paid to do hot holes you hate these things they rattle your teeth they blow your tires they bust up your car rip the alloy R you're so sick of hitting them you've complained all the way to the mayor's office but wait a minute some of the guys who are supposed to be fixing these things are doing anything but if these potholes make you mad wait till you see how little work these guys are doing you'll be dodging potholes all the way to City Hall to complain right now I want you to sit back and relax take it easy cuz that's what some of these guys are doing you're going to see a clock up in the corner of your screen watch it carefully you'll see minute by minute how much work they're really doing or not doing then ask yourself could you get away with this so now with our undercover cameras we show you a day in the life of some city of Detroit pothole patchers 7:30 a.m. the sun's not up yet and the pothole patchers arrive for a day of work looks like they're going to get an early start nah not these guys they don't even roll out of the yard till 9: they've been on the clock for an hour and a half already 9:15 first stop out of the gate a party store in Eastern Market they cash a paycheck and get a couple of Coney dogs for breakfast you don't want to be patching potholes on an empty stomach right 9:35 the truck is lumbering up grasset they're probably going to fill a pothole any minute now right not yet the guy riding shotgun has to make a quick stop at a gas station convenience store 10:00 a.m. it's Miller time time time to kick back a little and wash those conies down this guy hasn't even lifted a shovel yet and he's already buying a 40 oz beer he has no idea the fox two undercover cameras are right on his tail you never got to look at me so I'm still good I like a good be buz early in the morning with their first 40 oer on board the crew finally heads to a residential street they're working they're working finally at 10:21 almost 3 hours into the workday the first shovel full of cold patch goes into a pot hole 10:40 after 20 minutes of pothole patching time for a break our laborer if you can call him that Scrolls over to somebody's front yard to recycle some of that beer 11:03 he's been working for 42 minutes now that'll set a record today time for a 10-minute break and a few swigs from that 40 o 1113 to 11:21 8 more minutes of work that's a whole hour already enough for a while time to ride around and stop for a carry out lunch 11 40 to 12:40 the industrious Duo sit on the street for an hour eating and sipping out of those plastic cups at 12:40 it's time to get back to work remember it's almost 1:00 and he's done about an hour of pothole patching this time he works for 13 minutes wait till you see what happens next it's 1: p.m. we're sitting in our unmarked van watching these guys and they pull right up to our front bumper we figure we've been busted nah they don't have a clue they sit there for all almost a half hour chewing the fat and slugging beer out of those plastic cups I wonder if they must be getting tired now passing that brown bag back and forth screw that top on tight at25 it's time to refuel at another party store before going in this guy takes care of business again right on the side of the building inside the guys put another 40 oer on the counter Old English ale see it sitting there they try to buy some lottery tickets too but the store doesn't have a lottery license no problem time they're feeling pretty mellow okay all right a go make they walk out of the store with another big bruski now it's 1:30 the Wheelman decides he's got to go too he lets her rip right on the side of the truck now that shows a lot of respect for the taxpayers doesn't it with a whole hour and 13 minutes of work under their belts they sit for another 30 minutes till 2:00 working on the new 40 between 2:00 and 2:45 they do some sporadic pothole patching now you're getting some bang for your buck but only a total of 5 minutes out of 45 he hardly got his gloves dirty today and that'll be it for the day at 248 with an empty in each hand it's one last trip to the party store out a couple of minutes later with another brown bag for the road it's time to head back to the barn 250 to 335 the pothole patchers drive back toward the yard in no particular hurry they take surface streets all the way home at 3:35 a few blocks from the shop the truck pulls over talk about frequent urination this time he uses a sewer grate right on Michigan Avenue look at all those cars going by then he pops a piece of gum in his mouth and throws the wrapper on the ground don't want to go back smelling of Old English and one quick peek in the back of the truck to see how much cold patch they got rid of 341 it's quiton time baby they're back at the yard after another exhausting day what they I'm for so how do the hours of the day add up well this crew spent only an hour and 20 minutes actually patching potholes an hour and 50 minutes in the yard at the beginning and end of the day 2 hours driving two and fr the job and get this almost three and a half hours drinking and slacking off at the top of the hour we showed you pothole patchers goofing off busted on the job undercover cameras caught them drinking smoking and joking so what did their bosses have to say it is unbelievable at it's next a few minutes ago we showed you Detroit pothole patchers goofing off even drinking on the job so what do you think their bosses had to say about our undercover video Problem Solver Scott Lewis is here now with more pothole patchers busted on the job Scott Monica a few minutes ago I showed everybody some pretty outrageous stuff now you're about to see what happens when I go to the city yard armed with this tape and you should know those guys drinking aren't the only ones we caught slacking off buying beer at 10: in the morning sitting around in the truck for hours drinking barely working all day and they're not the only ones we caught goofing off on the job this is another city pothole crew we tailed they did only 2 hours and 9 Minutes of pothole patching during an 8-hour shift here's another crew these guys did all kinds of personal business but very little work in 2 hours they stopped at the bank and at a party store they picked up breakfast and sat in the truck eating then they went back to the yard we never saw them patch one pothole supervisors are supposed to be keeping tabs on these guys do they even know what's going on and if they do why don't they put a stop to it I went right to the city yard and tried to show the tape to to their boss how you doing yeah what you Scott Lewis from Fox 2 I need to talk to whoever is in charge of supervising the pothole Cruise take a close look inside the guard shack the gatekeeper is working on a puzzle he sends somebody else out to talk to us I'll wait out here I'll call him out call my balls inen come okay I got tell him I got some tape I want to show him okay okay I waited outside with my portable tape deck in hand till the boss came out if you were a supervisor and your workers were goofing off wouldn't you want to see the tape it's a little upsetting what they did can I show it to you I why you come in you got to leave your camera out here remember we have a tape of his workers drinking and goofing off on the job but get this he refused to even look at the tape what gets you more red up the fact that you're paying people who are working on beers instead of Roads or that the boss doesn't even want to look at the evidence that was Friday afternoon today after the story was promoted on the air I finally got a call from the the city now they want to see that undercover video they sent two people from the Department of Public Works to look at our tape they told me the city will have something to say after this story airs you might be wondering why the trucks you saw didn't have City logos on them well it's because the city hires out the truck and the driver the pothole Patcher is a city employee and they're all being paid about 10 bucks an hour and the drinking and goofing off aren't the only issues we wonder if the pothole crews are actually doing the job right take a look at this take a look at this from what we saw these guys are just throwing the patch down in piles not even packing it into the hole then you end up with a bump instead of a hole and that black oily goo winds up all over your car are you outraged by this well maybe you should be as a matter of fact the mayor's office is concerned too late this afternoon they called us and told us they are interested in finding out about problems in any City department they say they will be corrected but we'll keep following the story and we'll let you know what happens hu will back to you all right

Channel: Scott Lewis

Views: 910,113

Keywords: Scott Lewis, Private Investigator (Project Role), Pothole Patchers, Busted on the Job Classics

Id: 3uMdfviFlkE

Length: 10min 10sec (610 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 22 2014