Sea $ick ‘theft’ at the Intrepid

A clerk pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars from cash registers while working at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, authorities charged Wednesday.

Daniel Lee, 41, stole $367,000 over three years by reselling old tickets and keeping visitors’ entrance fees at the converted aircraft carrier docked on the West Side, according to a complaint filed in Manhattan Criminal Court.

Between March 2016 and July 4 this year, Lee allegedly exploited a quirk in the museum’s computer system that allowed workers to print passes from the day before for visitors who lost their current tickets.

“The defendant would steal approximately $300 to $600 on a daily basis, by giving customers who made cash payments a reprinted Intrepid ticket from the prior day, not properly logging the transaction in the computer system, and then keeping the cash provided to pay for the tickets,” the complaint says.

Before the museum opened each day, Lee printed out a fistful of old passes and kept them in a stack next to legit ones to hand out as he saw fit, although he’d occasionally log at least one legitimate ticket purchase when larger groups came through, according to the court papers.

He was busted after another worker audited Lee’s ticket sales and reviewed museum surveillance footage, the documents note.

Lee, who was arrested Tuesday and charged with one count of second-degree grand larceny, wore a red Polo shirt with the Intrepid logo on it during his arraignment Wednesday. He was released without bail and ordered to return to court July 21.

“We contacted law enforcement as soon as we identified the issue and are continuing to provide our full cooperation,” the museum said in a statement.

“As this is an open police investigation, it is not appropriate for us to discuss specific details.”