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When bills started piling up Brenda McPartland, a part-time Methodist church bookkeeper, gave herself a raise. How did she give herself a raise? All she did was submit a $150 paycheck to two of her superiors for their signatures and then she altered the check by adding a few more zeros, making the worth thousands of dollars.
It was so easy. She kept on doing it month after month until she had withdrawn over a quarter of a million dollars from the church’s account. In all, McPartland altered 35 paychecks between 1994 and 1998. In one year alone she stole over $90,000. Two other employees had to take a 25 percent pay cut at the same time she was enhancing her income. The reason no one suspected her was that this church bookkeeper not only wrote the paychecks for the church, but she also received the canceled checks from the bank.
In October 1999 she pled guilty to grand theft and was ordered to pay back all of the money as well as participate in a work furlough program with five years of probation, The good news, the Methodist church officials stated, was that the church was insured and has recouped all the money except
$22,000.
Maybe you and I would not steal from our employer, but are we stealing money as well as spiritual and physical blessings from our Heavenly Father?
Appeal text: “Do
not take what doesn’t belong to you.” [Exodus 20:15 TCW]
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