Treasurer charged with stealing $50K from Delco fire company
MEDIA, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Prosecutors say Terrea Stubbs of Nether Providence Township, Pennsylvania violated all public trust and responsibility.
They say she stole $50,000 from the South Media Fire Company.
She used her role as treasurer to carry out the theft.
Delaware County District Attorney Katayoun Copeland said, "It's devastating to a fire company such as this, a small community fire company. It will take a lot to come back from this."
Copeland says Stubbs' theft occurred over a period of 16 months.
She says she was forging checks, stealing cash donations, using money for online gambling.
Finally, she says the fire company did an audit and then held an emergency board meeting.
It was during that meeting Stubbs confessed through a text.
"During the course of the board meeting the fire chief was contacted and texted by Terrea Stubbs and she said had done this and apologized for betraying their trust," Copeland said.
What has shocked some the most is how Stubbs got away with it for so long.
Nether Providence Township Manager Gary Cummings says they make a $63,000 donation to the fire company each year.
Cummings said, "We're kind of upset about it. We'll investigate it and see what can be done to make corrections so this doesn't happen again."
In response Wednesday the company released a statement saying, "She breached our trust. She broke our hearts. The members of the South Media Fire Company will stand together and work our hardest to validate the trust that the community has placed in us."
