By Tracy Clemons
Centralia, IL (KSDK) - A community service club for high school girls in Centralia, Illinois is out of $20,000.
One of the clubs co-sponsors, 37-year-old Melissa Scheetz, is accused of stealing the money from the group. The funds were supposed to pay for service projects and their trip to Mexico.
"The complainant noticed that there were some money discrepancies, and that caused her to do a full check of their system and noticed there was a large sum of money missing," said Detective Blaine Uhls with the Centralia Police Department.
The other co-sponsor says once she figured out something wasn't adding up with their bank account, she went to their bank. She says the bank told her they'd been nearly wiped out. She got the police involved, and took them with her to a planned meeting at the old high school parking lot to pick up money from a fund raiser.
"At that point they confronted her with the paperwork showing the misuse of the funds on the account and where the money had gone and at that time Mrs. Scheetz was taken into custody," Detective Uhls said.
According to the police report, Sheetz admitted to taking money because her husband has been in and out of work. She claims she'd planned to pay it back when her husband found work.
"Even good people can be driven to do the wrong thing if placed in the right position," said Uhls.
Melissa Scheetz is charged with theft and fraud.
KSDK