Former Northampton County police chief accused of stealing $122,000 over 8 years

HELLERTOWN, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Former Hellertown Police Chief Robert Shupp is accused of slowly stealing over $100,000 from his department over the course of eight years.

Northampton County District Attorney Terrence Houck says most of it was taken in the form of overtime payments that were never authorized.

"He had signed a contract back in 2009 that I believe was renewed in January of this year in which he agreed, in part of the contract, that he would not be paid overtime and that any hours that were worked above his regular hours would be in comp time," Houck said.

Shupp also allegedly stole money seized during drug busts and petty cash from the department that was supposedly used in connection with drug investigations, which the DA says were bogus.

"He usually got the money in increments of $20 bills, none of that money was used for any kind of drug investigation," Houck said.

In total, Shupp is accused of stealing $122,000 from the police force he once led.

The borough has since released a statement, reading in part, "We take our role as stewards of taxpayer money very seriously. To that end, once the Borough discovered these issues, we conducted an internal investigation and contacted appropriate authorities."

Action News spoke with people who live and work in Hellertown who say they are simply stunned.

"To see this coming to light now, it makes you wonder, how deep does it go? How much corruption is there? How long did they know about it?" questioned Juliun Laslo from Hellertown.

"I'm still in shock over this. I cannot believe all these years, all that money in a town that's a very small, tight-knit community," Dianne Cochran said.

According to published reports, Shupp says he fully intends to fight these accusations in court, reportedly saying that the criminal complaint only tells part of the story.

Shupp faces 18 charges in total, 16 of which are felonies.

Some of the charges include theft and forgery.

Shupp's preliminary hearing is scheduled for January 4.