A Baltimore County Department of Public Works employee paved his driveway addition on the county’s dime and likely got three other employees, including his boss, to help him, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Office of the Inspector General.

The employee, who worked for the Bureau of Highways, used leftover county-purchased asphalt to pave an addition to his driveway in May 2020, committing theft and misconduct, the report said. Acting on a complaint they received last October, investigators found “a lot of compelling evidence,” like purchase orders, Google Maps photos of the house and driveway, repaving tickets, and GPS data that tracks county-issued vehicles, despite the employees’ denials, according to Baltimore County Inspector General Kelly Madigan.

But the real “a-ha moment” occurred when investigators found photos of the driveway that the employee’s wife had posted to Facebook four days after the employees had last paved it, Madigan said.

“A picture is worth a thousand words,” she said in an interview. “It showed motive, opportunity and means. It was Memorial Day weekend during COVID-19. Nobody was paying attention.”

County Administrative Officer D’Andrea Walker said in response that the county would refer the issue to the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office to “determine if additional legal actions will be taken.”

According to the 55-page report, the employee, who is not named, wanted to add to his existing driveway so his wife would have a place to park her car. Purchase orders with handwritten notes indicated that excess asphalt was ordered so that the employee could use the leftover tons to repave his driveway. The report does not say who placed the orders, nor does it name the three other employees who helped him add the driveway addition to his house, who are referred to as the “crew chief,” and employees B and C.

Investigators obtained vehicle tracking data that showed highway trucks were at the employee’s house on May 26, 2020, and May 27, 2020, when the employees paved the addition. Two of the three employees who did not own the house initially denied in interviews that they had ever been to the house. The third employee resigned from the county in 2021, and did not respond to requests for interviews, according to the report.

The crew chief admitted to “stopping around” the employee’s house on the days in question, but denied helping him repave the driveway: “There’s no way I would be stupid enough to risk my career putting asphalt at somebody’s house.”

The employee who repaved his driveway denied using county asphalt and told investigators he paid “an unknown man” $400 to pave the addition. The photos his wife posted after showed their driveway cordoned off by a “reddish, orange tapelike material … similar to what someone would use to temporarily cordon off a new driveway.”

Madigan has issued a number of reports in recent months detailing low-level offenses within the Department of Public Works, like employees committing time and attendance fraud. Earlier this month, major trash hauler Waste Management (WM) accused the department of unilaterally awarding its rival a pricey contract and cutting it out of the bidding process when it tried to negotiate.

Walker, the former director of Public Works and Transportation, said in a response letter to Madigan that the Bureau of Highways would implement a policy requiring supervisors to track and document the disposal of excess asphalt. The employees who are still employed by the county would “follow appropriate personal and disciplinary procedures,” she said.