Treasurer Stole From Toms River Boy Scouts

[Gone]

http://www.app.com/story/news/crime/jersey-mayhem/2015/06/23/theft-boy-scouts-alleged/29178867/

[RememberSchiff]

Over a year, four fundraisers and $13K gone... maybe the CO should replace the whole Troop Committee.

[NJCubScouter]

Oh great, right here in New Jersey. Makes a fellow proud...

 

Although embezzlement is obviously a very bad thing regardless of the amount, it amazes me that someone would destroy their own life (as this person has done) for $13,000. I once met with a potential client who had (allegedly) embezzled more than $500,000 from his employer. (Assume that every verb from here on in has the word "allegedly" in front of it.) He had spent some of the money and had managed to get most of the rest into "offshore" accounts. When he was arrested, he had his car packed, was ready to head to the airport and had a plane ticket in his pocket. (This wasn't a complete coincidence, he was under surveillance.) Obviously what he did was very very wrong, but at least he had a plan, even if it didn't work. What was this troop treasurer's plan? Was she planning to start a new life somewhere on $13,000? (My guess is just the opposite; this is just a wild guess, but an experienced wild guess: She was probably trying to provide for her family to stay right where they are. Maybe they were behind on their mortgage and this is how she decided she was going to save the house. But you've GOT to know you're going to get caught doing something like this. Unless she really thought she was going to be able to pay it all back, and nobody would ever catch on. But that's not a very good plan.)

[eagle77]

 Or maybe she was just heading down to Atlantic City and having a good time now and then. If she ever would win she would replace what she had taken. Right!!!

[Gone]

Over a year, four fundraisers and $13K gone... maybe the CO should replace the whole Troop Committee.

 

Exactly. One would think the TC would be getting reports with the transactions noted and highlighted. Our unit has a monthly "sit down" between the TC chair, the treasurer and one other adult (which rotates attending the meeting so never the same person more than twice in a row) where they log in and view online the statement and transactions on the bank website. That way, unless everyone is in cahoots, any missing money would be found ASAP.

[NJCubScouter]

Exactly. One would think the TC would be getting reports with the transactions noted and highlighted. Our unit has a monthly "sit down" between the TC chair, the treasurer and one other adult (which rotates attending the meeting so never the same person more than twice in a row) where they log in and view online the statement and transactions on the bank website. That way, unless everyone is in cahoots, any missing money would be found ASAP.

Well, I have to say that sometimes my troop committee has gone for months at a time without a real treasurer's report, which is not good. Of course, none of the treasurers WE have had would EVER steal money! And I truly believe that, but believing it isn't good enough. I am sure the fellow committee members of this person in Toms River NJ were, like me, absolutely certain that their treasurer would never steal any money. Otherwise she would not have been treasurer and apparently be trusted with no oversight whatsoever.

[packsaddle]

In my previous career we had an office clerk who kept the petty cash fund under her strict teutonic scrutiny. I know this because my lab had to use that fund to buy stamps for official mail. And then one day she didn't show up for work. And then after a couple of days, someone realized that she had taken the petty cash (less than $5000).

They found her in S. Dakota. She had become romantically involved with a low-life type and either Cupid or hormones led her astray. She destroyed her federal retirement, not to mention the rest of her 'professional' life, for what amounts to pocket change to some people...that and a sleazy male.

Sigh....What causes women to be attracted to those sleazy types? I mean...in my entire life I've never had a woman 'come on' to me, never had a single student (female OR male!) offer to exchange favors for a good grade, not even one time. So I'm wondering: what manner of insult IS this? What the heck is so wrong with me that I haven't even been tempted, not one single time? Am I really that ugly..don't answer that Twocubdad. Oh well, maybe it's for the best. Egad, now I'm really depressed. Think I'll go home and eat a quart of ice cream.

Edited June 24, 2015 by packsaddle

[Gone]

Well, I have to say that sometimes my troop committee has gone for months at a time without a real treasurer's report, which is not good. Of course, none of the treasurers WE have had would EVER steal money! And I truly believe that, but believing it isn't good enough. I am sure the fellow committee members of this person in Toms River NJ were, like me, absolutely certain that their treasurer would never steal any money. Otherwise she would not have been treasurer and apparently be trusted with no oversight whatsoever.

I think many people feel this way.

 

Using this method we found one oddity in our transactions a long while back. $20 or so was spent at a barber. Turns out the TC had two debit cards, both red, both the same bank, did not read the one he used was the troop card. Honest mistake. He was made aware, paid the money back. He even brought the treasurer a cobbler for having caused a fuss.

[packsaddle]

I went ahead and locked the duplicate again. With your permission, Bad Wolf, I'll delete the other copy. No one has responded.

 

I'm thinking this is something that is happening automatically for you and that you are not actually at fault somehow, for creating these duplicates. Wanna try an experimental thread to see?

[NJCubScouter]

Think I'll go home and eat a quart of ice cream.

If you still want to hold out hope, make it the "lite" variety. And save half for tomorrow.

 

My story doesn't involve a woman led astray by anything except her (and her husband's) overspending ways. It involves a legal secretary who fell behind in her mortgage, car payments, credit cards, etc. (Like I said before, my wild-guessing has some experience behind it.) The senior partner of the firm had been appointed trustee of a very small company that had filed for Chapter 11 and had operated like that for a few years. The trustee had laid off all the full-time employees (including management) except for the actual operating guys and needed to hire a very-part-time bookkeeper for the company. So he offered the "job" (probably less than $100 a week) as a moonlighting gig to one of the secretaries in his office who had done some bookkeeping before. My guess is he didn't even care if she did the bookkeeping while on her regular secretarial time, and as it turns out, he wasn't really checking what she was doing. How did she repay this generosity and trust? I guess I've already given that away. The day of reckoning always arrives, in this case in the form of a mandatory periodic accounting that had to be submitted to the bankruptcy court. The person doing the report couldn't figure out why the numbers weren't adding up, went up the chain to an attorney who called the company foreman and found out what he had REALLY been getting in his paycheck as opposed to what the books showed, then looked at the books and found some more issues, and that was it. Obviously she lost her job (both regular and overtime), was prosecuted, and I think she had to do 30 days or so just to make the point, plus a few months in a halfway house. The really stupid part - there's almost always a really stupid part - is that she had a retirement account with the firm that had MORE THAN SHE HAD STOLEN. She had to agree that the funds would be taken out of the account to repay the company. (Well, she didn't have to, but the 30 days probably would have been more like 120 days if she hadn't.) If she needed the money that badly, she probably could have borrowed it from the retirement account, or if not she could have withdrawn it and paid the taxes and penalties, which isn't great but is better than going to jail and becoming unemployable forever.

[NJCubScouter]

I think many people feel this way.

 

Using this method we found one oddity in our transactions a long while back. $20 or so was spent at a barber. Turns out the TC had two debit cards, both red, both the same bank, did not read the one he used was the troop card. Honest mistake. He was made aware, paid the money back. He even brought the treasurer a cobbler for having caused a fuss.

We've had some treasurers who, I suspect, didn't examine the bank statements closely enough to even catch something like that. Though we've never had a troop debit card anyway. (By the way, TC? You mean CC? Or is this another acronym that I'm forgetting?)

[Gone]

I went ahead and locked the duplicate again. With your permission, Bad Wolf, I'll delete the other copy. No one has responded.

 

I'm thinking this is something that is happening automatically for you and that you are not actually at fault somehow, for creating these duplicates. Wanna try an experimental thread to see?

 

Odd because I used two different computers to post those. I could understand if it was the same computer. Also was on two different networks.

[packsaddle]

Greed...for lack of a better word, is....risky. LOL, I guess Gordon Gekko, at least, was staying on the right side of the law, unlike the case you described, NJ. You'd think an accountant would KNOW that this stuff always comes to the surface sooner or later. If my memory serves me, in my example (driven by gonads, not greed) the person made restitution, lost job and pretty much all prospects of a bright future. The guy, I have no idea what happened to him.

 

Bad Wolf, two computers, two networks. You're right. It's a mystery. At least I tried to find a way to let you off the hook, lol.

[Twocubdad]

Dang, Pack, you cut me off.

 

And sometimes stuff happens. About two weeks ago I was trying to buy something on eBay (which I do maybe once every two or three years). I knew the credit card attached to my PayPal account had expired, so I was in my PP account trying to add a new card. Huge PIA. Spent a half-hour digging around trying to figure it out. All of the sudden, a "Thank You For Your Payment" window pops up. Somehow I must have clicked something which authorized payment on one of the expired cards. So I send an email to the seller warning them that my charge will probably bounce, that I'm an e-commerce idiot and for them to tell me how to fix it.

 

Next morning there is an email from the troop treasurer asking who charged something on eBay to the troop credit card. Of course I fessed up immediately. At some point I bought something for the troop (I have no idea what or when) and charged it to the troop CC. Either I clicked something, or PayPal figured there was a valid card on my account. Regardless, we fixed it and moved on.

[CalicoPenn]

Hmmm, if only there were some simple (2 signatures required) steps that a unit (no debit cards) could take (numbered duplicate receipts for cash) to help prevent (copy of bank statement mailed to CC) these kinds of things.