School cafeteria manager embezzles $1.5 million in chicken wings

A Southern Suburban School District food service superintendent has been charged by Cook County prosecutors with engaging in a massive embezzlement scheme in which she allegedly stole more than 11,000 orders of chicken wings worth $1.5 million in taxpayer money over a 19-month period.

Vera Liddell worked as a food service director at Harvey's School, where she has been charged with an ongoing felony of financial crimes and theft of up to $1.5 million, according to NBC Chicago.

Prosecutors said Lidl placed hundreds of unauthorized orders for food items, particularly chicken wings, with a major food supplier in the area from July 2020 to February 2022.

Subsequently, the business manager of the school district in question conducted an audit of the departments and their expenses, and discovered that the food services department in that school had exceeded its annual budget by $300,000, and that the school year was only half past that point.

 The documents stated that the business manager later found invoices signed by Liddell for "massive quantities" of chicken wings, an item not usually served to students because it contained bones.

As part of the investigation, I interviewed Gordon Food Service employees who said they knew the woman because of the massive amounts of chicken wings she purchased, according to prosecutors.

Surveillance video showed Lidl arriving at the Gordon Food Service facility to take orders, and electronically signing for receipt.

And then the woman would leave in a truck with the orders that never reach the school.

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