Chicago woman gets nine-year sentence for stealing $1.5m in chicken wings

A school district official in Chicago was given nine-year jail sentence after pleading guilty to stealing a staggering $1.5m worth of chicken wings.

Vera Liddell, the food service director for Harvey School District 152 near Chicago, stole the huge amount of fast food during the pandemic and its aftermath, when the wings were meant for children doing remote learning but who were still picking up school meals, local TV station WGN reported .

In total, Liddell, 68, ordered more than 11,000 cases of wings from the school district’s food provider, and then picked up the order herself in a district cargo van. Legal papers filed as part of the case called the scheme a “massive fraud”. The scheme lasted from July 2020 until February 2022.

The theft was uncovered during a routine audit when it was found the annual food service costs were $300,000 over budget only halfway through the school year, WGN said .