New Yorker Plays Casting Director for Police Lineups, Earning $10 for Each One

For the last 15 years, Robert Weston has served as a kind of casting director for the New York Police Department, tapping acquaintances from the public housing project where he has lived most of his life to serve as fillers in police lineups.

Weston is available any time of night or day, and earns $10 for each lineup he fills in the Bronx, the New York Times reports. The fillers he finds are paid $10 each; sometimes Weston casts himself, pocketing $20 for the dual role. The money is his primary source of income.

“A short man with a pencil-thin beard, Mr. Weston seems a rather unlikely candidate for having a working relationship with the Police Department, even an informal one,” the Times says. “He is frequently profane, talks of beating up anyone who crosses him, and spends quite a bit of his money on coconut-flavored liquor.”