Three beefy city Transportation Department workers have been suspended after they were caught pumping iron at a Brooklyn gym on the taxpayer dime, The Post has learned.
A DOT probe found that assistant city highway repairer Alvero Arias and his co-workers, Theodore Segure and Joseph Ortiz, were regularly spending part of their workday at Richie’s Gym in Sunset Park near their DOT outpost, sources said.
“They were going there every day during work,” one source said. “They’d work out for an hour and a half to two hours a day.”
DOT brass recently caught wind of the brazen bodybuilders’ shenanigans and began tailing them, a source said.
“They followed them for six weeks. Then they got busted,” the source said.
The three men were hauled in front of an administrative judge, who gave them each a 30-day unpaid suspension and a year’s probation, according to sources familiar with the situation.
“New Yorkers rightly expect a lot from those who work on their behalf, and we have zero tolerance for anyone who falls short in their responsibilities,’’ said DOT spokesman Seth Solomonow.
“Our city employees are some of the most dedicated in the nation, and anyone who doesn’t take their service seriously will be found and disciplined.”
Records show Arias rakes in more than $65,000 a year — including more than $16,000 in overtime — from his road-crew gig.
Segure’s $57,000-a-year paycheck also included a five-figure chunk of overtime. Ortiz makes about $30,000.
Sources at Richie’s Gym said Arias is a member, but neither Segure nor Ortiz shows up on the roster.
Membership at the no-frills, hard-core workout joint is a bargain at about $20 a month, and walk-ins are $5 a day.
Neither Arias nor Segure could be found by The Post at his home, and their phone numbers weren’t listed. Neither an address nor a home number could be found for Ortiz.
Arias’ muscle has come in handy in the past. Just before Hurricane Sandy, Arias, who lives on Staten Island with his girlfriend and their young son, pulled an all-nighter pumping sewers in his Travis neighborhood to help protect it from flooding, according to a local newspaper.
Additional reporting by Lorena Mongelli