By Staff Report
Two Washington County residents are in jail on theft charges after allegedly stealing from a school fundraiser.
Investigators with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office have been working on a report of a compromised bank account. The victims stated they’ve had several unauthorized transactions on their bank history. These transactions were made in the names of Kristin Leigh Kirk, 40, and Justin Lee Thomas, 38, Gulf Power and both Kirk and Thomas’ PayPal accounts.
The victim identified the subjects through social media accounts having previously purchased cookie dough from Kirk’s child, who was selling for a school fundraiser. According to the victim’s statement the child had several checks and cash in their possession at the time of the purchase.
According to WCSO, Kirk and Thomas used the information from the check used to purchase the cookie dough to hack the victim’s bank account.
Investigators confirmed with school officials the student selling the cookie dough was in fact, Kirk’s child. Officials also reported they had received checks from the student, but no cash was turned in.
After further investigation, others reported purchasing cookie dough from the same child and never receiving their order.
WCSO attempted to contact Kirk at her residence, but she was not home. Thomas was inside but refused to come out to speak with investigators.
Thomas later called investigators but made excuses of why he couldn’t meet them at the sheriff’s office. Kirk claimed to be in custody at the Bay County Jail when they fraudulent transactions were made. However, that was proven to be false when investigators obtained information from Gulf Power and the victim’s bank confirmed the transactions were made before and after Kirk’s incarceration.
On February 9, Kirk and Thomas were arrested and are both charged with criminal use of personal information and two counts of petit theft.
Jim Saunders