A former school employee in Illinois was sentenced on Friday to nine years in prison for stealing $1.5 million in chicken wings over two years.
For 10 years, Vera Liddell, 66, worked as a food service director for Harvey School District 152. Prosecutors said that from July 2020 to February 2022, she made orders that she billed to the school district but kept for herself, according to WLS.
WGN reported that Liddell picked up at least 11,000 cases of chicken wings from the food provider in a school district van but the food was never given to the students.
Liddell, who was arrested last year, carried out the crimes during the COVID pandemic when students were not physically in school. The scheme came to light in early 2023 — when the district’s business manager conducted a mid-year audit and discovered they were $300,000 over their annual food budget despite only being halfway through the school year.
According to WAFB, the manager was also suspicious that chicken wings were purchased at all as they are not given to students because they contain bones.
Despite pleading guilty to charged with theft and operating a criminal enterprise, it is unclear what Liddell did with the chicken wings.
