Sep 9, 2005 By Josh Krysak 2 min read

WAYNESBURG – A 28-year-old Waynesburg woman was charged with record tampering and theft after an undercover investigation by state police revealed the woman had siphoned payments made to an area ambulance service. Sally Sue Durbin of Toll Gate Run Road was charged with theft by unlawful taking, theft by failure to required disposition of funds and tampering with records after she stole more than $5,000 in revenue from EMS Southwest, where she worked as a cashier.

A spokesperson for EMS Southwest declined comment on the charges Thursday night.

According to the police report filed by Trooper Craig Yauch, Durbin was employed as the collections administrator at EMS Southwest for about one year.

After an audit of the company’s accounts revealed $5,380.16 in missing funds, an investigation of Durbin by the state police was initiated after her financial records became “extremely unbalanced and accounts appeared to be changed,” Yauch said.

Police engaged in an undercover examination of Durbin’s actions, with several plainclothes officers making payments to accounts at the ambulance service.

Yauch explained that Durbin would either inflate the balance to skim funds from the payment or would pocket the money paid by the troopers.

Yauch said in his report that the officers eventually confronted Durbin in the EMS Southwest parking lot along Rolling Meadows Drive in Franklin Township, where investigators found money and receipts on Durbin.

Durbin was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Neil M. Canan Thursday and released on a $10,000 unsecured bond.