The U Police Department suspects someone stole more than $3,700 in cash from U Medical Center income accounting.
U Police confirmed Thursday that they are investigating the Medical Center, located in Research Park, for the missing money. On Oct. 19, they received a call from Karen Wilson, executive director of university medical billing at the Medical Center, that income accounting’s numbers for their deposit checks were suspiciously off for the past month.
“There’s some discrepancy between what was taken in and what was given out in the deposits,” said U Police Capt. Lynn Mitchell.
When U Police began looking into the numbers, they found that one of the Medical Center’s employees had an outstanding warrant. U Police did not disclose what crime the warrant was for, beyond confirming that it is not related to the Medical Center theft case. Officers arrested the wanted employee, who the U Hospital and Clinics then fired, said spokesman Chris Nelson.
U Police did not confirm whether the arrested employee is the same one suspected of stealing the money.
This wouldn’t be the first accounting-related theft at the U this year. Jara Jane Wimmer, former accountant for the U’s theater department, was charged Oct. 16 in the 3rd District Court with stealing more than $123,000 from the department during the past three years.
This investigation will be similar to Wimmer’s, Mitchell said. The U Police will compare receipts, deposit checks and transactions to find out exactly what happened to the money.
Mitchell said he could not predict how long the investigation would take.
Nelson said the U Hospital system will be cooperating with U Police to prosecute the theft to the fullest extent.