DETROIT – An agent used surveillance cameras to confirm a smelly suspicion: Someone had been urinating in a freight elevator at an Internal Revenue Service data center in Detroit. Authorities filed a criminal charge Tuesday against Michael Hicks. In an affidavit, treasury agent Delmaria Scott said she interviewed Hicks in January 2008 and he admitted urinating in the elevator for months.
Scott said Hicks did it "because he felt he could get away with it." It cost $4,600 to clean the elevator.
Hicks, who was a contract employee at the IRS, was charged with damaging federal property. A defense lawyer was not listed.
Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for prosecutors, says the government was unsuccessful in trying to resolve the case without a criminal charge.