Shocking news, a Teachers Union official was pilfering funds from a pension account:

Even now, as federal agents pore over the financial records they seized from his union headquarters in Miami, Pat Tornillo remains a legend among Florida teachers.

He led the nation's first statewide teachers' strike, a bitter walkout that kept 1-million Florida children out of school but gave public employees the right to bargain collectively.

He built the largest labor union in the South, securing higher pay for teachers who paid him millions of dollars in dues - money he used to help elect dozens of Democrats to public office.

But the 77-year-old Tornillo now faces the biggest battle of his life. Federal agents are investigating whether he also used teacher dues to finance a lavish lifestyle for himself and his wife.

Former employees say he charged the Miami-Dade teachers union for $2,000-a-night hotel suites and trips to Europe and the Far East. According to published reports, he used his union credit card to buy tailored suits in Hong Kong, jewelry in California and python-print pajamas from Neiman-Marcus. He is even accused of using union dues to pay his maid.

Python print pajamas? Not just a thief, but a thief who wears amphibian print PJ's, nice.