Woman Stole $85K from Girl Scouts: Sarasota Sheriff

SARASOTA, FL — A 42-year-old Sarasota woman faces criminal charges after deputies say she left a trail of evidence behind while allegedly swiping nearly $85,000 from the Girl Scouts of Gulfcoast Florida.

The case against Stephanie Marie Person began to unfold in May when the Girl Scouts’ organization reported it was missing and estimated $77,000 from its banking account. Person, who served as the Girl Scouts’ member services coordinator, was identified as a suspect at that time, the sheriff’s office wrote in a media release. Person was responsible for managing 500 different troops’ banking accounts and money, the sheriff’s office noted.

Investigators learned that all 500 troops had their funds deposited into a Bank of America account. Troop leaders were then provided with Visa prepaid cards to pay for their troop expenses. Person, an arrest report said, was responsible for moving money from the main account to each troop’s separate accounts.

“Person began to use Troop 400, an inactive troop account, to transfer monies into from the main account,” the arrest report said. She is accused of rerouting money from several other accounts into Troop 400’s.

According to the arrest report, evidence of the crime was found on Person’s work laptop. Detectives also found video surveillance from different stores throughout Sarasota County that showed her using troop debit cards to make purchases, the arrest report said.

A total of five troops suffered loses, according to the sheriff’s office. They are:

• Troop 839, $4,272.81
• Troop 631, $2,793.67
• Troop 387, $1,069.30
• Troop 257, $3,169.18
• Troop 499, $73,455.74

The total financial loss, according to detectives, was $84,760.70 and not the initial $77,000 the Girl Scouts of Gulfcoast Florida thought, the report noted.

Person was interviewed at the sheriff’s office earlier this week. After her Wednesday, Aug. 31 arrest, the report noted, she admitted to taking the money from the Girl Scouts. Person, the report said, told detectives she was having financial problems and initially took money with the intent to pay it back. She, however, never resolved her financial troubles, the arrest report said.

“The defendant stated that when she realized how easy it was, she found herself unable to stop,” the report noted.

Person was booked into the Sarasota County Jail Wednesday morning on grand theft and scheme to defraud charges. She remained there Wednesday afternoon with bond set at $9,000.

Booking photo courtesy of the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office