Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Well, not in this case anyway. A school worker is going to prison for almost a decade, and it's all over chicken wings. Wait, what?
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Well, it turns out that theft is theft even if it's chicken wings. That's what one Illinois school worker soon found out. A court ordered her to spend the next nine years in prison. This comes after she reportedly stole 11,000 cases of chicken wings. Those cases of chicken cost around $1.5 million. To make matters worse, the chicken was meant for school children, and it was during the pandemic. So basically not a good look, but let's take a look at how a school worker allegedly went fowl.
Before she became a convicted convict, Vera Liddell worked as the food service director at Harvey School District 152. The court found her guilty of using her position to her advantage. Liddell reportedly stole chicken from the school district. Authorities caught on when the school district blew past its food budget. Things quickly didn't add up. The school district was $300,000 over budget with months left int he school year.
Chicken Wings Lead To Arrest
According to ABC 7 Chicago. the 68-year-old first hatched the scheme (no pun intended) in 2020. Over the course of two years, Liddell pull off what she thought was the chicken wings heist of the century. She ended up buying a large amount of chicken wings. She even used one of the school cargo vans to pick up the food. However, instead of going to schools in the district, the poultry went to Liddell instead.
Liddell was able to pull of the crime because schools were closed at the time. However, the school district still sent out meal kits to its students in remote learning. So it was easy for the chicken wings to go missing. Authorities charged her with theft and operating a criminal enterprise in January 2023.
Liddell will spend nearly as long in prison as she did as food service head for the school district. She plead guilty and landed nine years in the big house as a result. It's safe to say they probably won't have chicken wings there.
