Disgraced bank teller Lori Burleigh, formerly of Progressive Home Federal Savings & Loan, allegedly stole a total of $90,000 from elderly customers’ bank accounts.
Allegheny County prosecutors say that she used the money to gamble at a casino.
One of her coworkers became suspicious in June when an elderly woman called about her bank account because Burleigh took the phone call in the bank’s basement. She examined the customer’s account and found a suspicious withdrawal.
The transaction was suspicious because she knew that the customer had not been in the bank that day. She told her supervisor about what happened.
Managers found $4,000 missing from Burleigh’s cash drawer.
The manager confronted her about the money. Burleigh told the manager that a different customer had withdrawn the money, and she had simply not posted the transaction yet.
Court documents allege that Burleigh went to that customer’s house with the $4,000 cash and tried to give the money to the customer. He refused. He called the bank to report what happened.
After that, Burleigh went to the first customer’s house and "asked the customer if she would tell the bank that she actually withdrew the money if [Ms. Burleigh] agreed to repay the money directly to her," local newspaper The Post-Gazette reports.
Further investigation by bank officials and detectives reveals that she stole a total of $90,000 between April 2011 and May 2013, all from elderly customers, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.
She no longer works at the bank.