WEST HAZLETON -- The West Hazleton Community Ambulance Association is out almost $5,000 and police say it's because the treasurer of that company was stealing.
The West Hazleton police chief says this is the second time someone has been accused of stealing money from that volunteer ambulance company. He says at some point there needs to be a checks and balance system to prevent a crime like this.
Eric Jenkins of Freeland covered his face while walking into a magistrate's office in Luzerne County. Jenkins is charged with taking almost $5,000 from the West Hazleton Community Ambulance Association.
The investigation started in March when the president of the association realized money was missing.
Police say the money was taken between January and February of this year.
West Hazleton police met with Jenkins in March when he told the cops he was the treasurer for the ambulance company.
According to court papers, Jenkins said he ran into money problems back in November of 2014 and withdrew cash from the ATM with the West Hazleton account for living expenses, to go out to eat, to go out on weekends.
He said it snowballed and he got to a point where he didn't care if he got caught.
He wouldn't answer any of our questions and covered his face the entire time, even as he drove away.
West Hazleton police say this is the second time they've charged a treasurer with taking money from the ambulance association.
"These are individuals that are responsible for your life," said West Hazleton Police Chief Brian Bugilio. "They come and save your life if you need an ambulance, but yet they can't manage their own money."
The chief says something needs to be done to prevent these kinds of thefts.
"It just seems like there's no checks and balances in any of these organizations and these organizations have all this money at their disposal and nobody checks to actually see what's happening with this money on the other end."
He thinks it's time maybe the state gets involved.
"More audits and a little more thorough accounting practices put into place," the chief suggested.
Eric Jenkins is free on bail, but as part of that bail agreement, he's not allowed to go back to the ambulance company.
