TUNKHANNOCK -- Police have charged the former director of the Wyoming County 911 Center with several counts of theft.
According to investigators, Debra Raimondi purchased more than 1,200 hundred ink cartridges and toner from 2009 through 2014, totaling more than $92,000.
The issue is that the 911 center only needed about one or two cartridges a year. Investigators believe Raimondi would receive a commission for these orders in the form of Wal-Mart gift cards. All the excess cartridges were discovered when a new director took over the 911 center.
According to investigators, most of those ink cartridges that were purchased weren't even compatible with the printer being used.
Norman Washick runs Cartridge World near Pittston and says it would be just about impossible for the 911 Center to ever use that much ink.
"You'd have to probably have 100-200 printers and be using a cartridge a day to use those kind of amounts before they would run out," he explained. "Ink cartridges have a six-to-eight-month shelf life. Toner cartridges (can last) two to three years."
The Wyoming County District attorney told Newswatch16 this is one of the most unusual cases he's handled. And for those inside the Yearbook Diner in Tunkhannock, this is unbelievable.
"People honestly will do anything to get money," said Lexi Tinna of Tunkhannock. "It's just crazy that someone who is working at such a prestigious place would honestly come to terms with buying ink cartridges for money."
"I could see it happening in Lackawanna County or Luzerne County, but not in Wyoming County," added Eric Marhelski of Tunkhannock.
"We need two signatures," proposed Betsy Ziegler of Fleetville. "You had another thing recently where somebody got away with a whole bunch of money and two signatures might stop it."
Raimondi is due back in court in December.