Shopping.

Loafing.

Using Pennsylvania Department of Transportation equipment for personal errands.

And a whistleblower says it's even worse than that.

This story started with tips from PennDOT workers. They told Team 4 that goofing off on the job is rampant, so Team 4 wanted to see if we could capture that on video. We did.

The following investigative report by Team 4's Jim Parsons first aired May 4, 2005, on Channel 4 Action News at 5 p.m.

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What you are seeing is a PennDOT foreman arriving for work in Monroeville. He's 19 minutes late.

Video

Watch Parsons' Report

Fifteen minutes after checking in, Dennis Briggs is behind the wheel of a PennDOT crew cab truck, heading toward Route 22.

Team 4 followed Briggs and watched as he pulled into Miracle Mile Shopping Center, parked the truck and strolled inside a home improvement center. He was in there for 40 minutes. When he came out, he was pushing a cart filled with folding chairs, a folding table, lumber and several tubes of caulk. These supplies weren't purchased for use on the job. We know that because we continued the pursuit.

We watched as he stopped at a restaurant to get something to eat. After that, he drove right past his PennDOT maintenance yard and entered the Parkway East, heading west.

Briggs drove through Wilkinsburg and parked on Ross Avenue, right in front of a house that he owns. Then, he unloaded the materials from the PennDOT crew cab and carried them into his house.

That's how Dennis Briggs spent the first two hours of his shift.

Confidential source: "I hate to admit it, but I would say I average about one hour a day actually working. I know that's hard for you to understand, but that's the truth."

Team 4 agreed to conceal this PennDOT employee's identity.

Source: "I feel guilty we're getting paid eight hours a day. Saturdays, we get time and a half. Sundays, we get double time. I just feel guilty sitting around getting a paycheck every two weeks. I get paid for 75 hours every two weeks and I probably did five hours."

A PennDOT press secretary says loafing is not the norm among PennDOT workers.

Rich Kirkpatrick, press secretary: "We value highly the mission that we have, which is to be responsible, to act with integrity and to deliver a quality transportation system day in and day out to the people of Pennsylvania."

Parsons: "When you say 'with integrity,' what does that mean?"

Kirkpatrick: "To be honest. To provide a day's work for a dollar's pay."

You be the judge as to whether these PennDOT employees are providing a day's work for the dollars you paid them.

It's four hours before quitting time at the PennDOT facility in Glyde, Washington County. We watched as a half-dozen workers hang around the yard, sitting in their personal cars, loading empty boxes in their trunks. One employee lifts the hood on his car and starts working on it. Another guy drives his car over to the PennDOT shed and washes his vehicle. Another employee washes his vehicle.

Where is the boss, you might be wondering? We found his PennDOT truck parked outside a beer distributor in Marianna. Rick Queen spent 15 minutes inside before leaving. He finally showed up at the Glyde yard two hours before the shift ended.

But his employees didn't get to work when Queen arrived. Instead, they left for the night, two hours early. They headed to their cars and took off. We watched as Queen, who has a take-home PennDOT truck, closed the gate and drove to his house in Fredericktown.

Source: "If you're not lazy when you start working for PennDOT, you will shortly after."

And this worker claims to see worse on-the-job offenses than laziness.

Source: "They drink in the buildings, they drink in their cars, they drink out on the job where they feel they're away from the public and the public can't see them. It's practically an everyday thing -- the use of alcohol and sometimes drugs."

Parsons: "On the job?"

Source: "On the job."

We didn't see any on-the-job drinking or drug use during our surveillance, but we checked criminal records and found more than 20 PennDOT workers in Allegheny and Washington counties who have alcohol- or drug-related convictions.

Lora White drives a PennDOT truck almost every day, despite her 2001 DUI.

Bryan Brownlee is driving again -- not only his personal truck, but a PennDOT truck -- even though his license was suspended for 30 days three months ago for a DUI.

The state police report says "Brownlee caused a one-vehicle crash on Route 18 in Washington County. Brownlee's eyes were bloodshot and his speech slurred and stuttering." The trooper adds, "This officer asked Brownlee how many alcoholic beverages he had consumed tonight and he stated, six beers. As Brownlee exited his vehicle, he staggered and stumbled."

Brownlee told me PennDOT took away his driving privileges only for the 30 days that his license was suspended. It turns out that's the policy.

Parsons: "Is it strict enough to limit the person's demotion so that they're not operating heavy equipment to whatever the license suspension is? Why doesn't PennDOT go beyond that?"

Kirkpatrick: "I feel that what we do have is appropriate. We are aggressive about this."

PennDOT performs random alcohol and drug testing of half its CDL-licensed operators every year.

But this worker says many heavy equipment drivers who drink on the job somehow avoid that testing. And if employees witness a co-worker drinking or doing drugs, in order to report it, they have to do it on the record with their boss. There's no employee tipline, as many companies now provide.

Source: "There's no one to call and say, 'Hey, why don't you check on this guy? I think he's drinking and he's driving equipment.' There's no one to do that. There's no one at PennDOT that can do that. It don't exist."

We took our findings from this investigation to PennDOT executives on Tuesday. Here's the reaction.

Karl Ishman, PennDOT District 11 executive: "It's shock. We consider ourselves good stewards of the taxpayers' dollar, and we intend to look at it very carefully. We want to thank you and WTAE for bringing it to our attention."

We don't get a "thank you" every day after a story like that. It may serve as a source of encouragement to the majority of PennDOT workers who want to see their agency improve.