(The Great Falls Tribune posted the following story on its website on April 17.)
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — James House of Shelby will spend a month in a federal prison for stealing almost $19,000 in ticket money from Amtrak.
U.S. District Judge Sam E. Haddon also ordered House, 32, to repay $5,042. House already had returned the rest of the money, said Lorraine Gallinger, first assistant U.S. attorney in Billings.
House, an assistant conductor for Amtrak, pleaded guilty in December to pocketing cash from ticket sales between April 1999 and February 2002.
Amtrak conductors are issued tickets for sale to customers who do not pay in advance. In April 2002, Amtrak auditors said House had 250 tickets that were unaccounted for, worth a total of $18,915.
House was the first of two Shelby Amtrak conductors to plead guilty to theft. Miriam Reed, 42, pleaded guilty in January to stealing more than $41,000 from Amtrak. She has not been sentenced.