Local woman charged with stealing $130,000 from bank

A Havre woman is accused of stealing nearly $130,000 from Bear Paw Credit Union, where she worked for many years.

Peggy Teel is charged with one felony count of theft by embezzlement, a common scheme, and is scheduled to appear in state District Court to plead guilty or not guilty Aug. 15.

Charging documents say that on Feb. 3, Gerry Veis, Bear Paw's executive vice president, came into the police station to report that he suspected someone was stealing money from the credit union.

Veis told officers the credit union had been having unusual shortages going back to 2007. He said that, in an effort to figure out the problem, three automated teller machines, or ATMs, in the region were inspected. The service companies told Veis they were working properly and "was advised by these companies that this could be an employee theft issue," to which, charging documents say, Veis said Credit Union management did not believe, at the time, that any employees were stealing money.

"The Credit Union chose to believe it was a mechanical or software issue," the charging document says.

The credit union personnel did things like fluff the cash to avoid bills sticking together and changed procedures regarding how the ATM canisters were loaded. But the problems persisted.

It was after an ATM in Shelby broke and was replaced by one that had been in Havre, Veis said, that he realized the credit union had a theft problem. The machine that was having shortages in Havre stopped doing so after being moved to Shelby.

The credit union then implemented a new way of loading the ATM canisters and after that the Havre ATM stopped having cash shortages, files say.

Veis showed investigators a printout that indicated a total of $63,080 had gone missing from 2007 to 2015 from the ATMs.

There was more.

Veis said tellers had been missing "a large amount" of money from their drawers, and despite new money-handling policies, the money kept disappearing. Going back to 2003 up to 2015, Veis said the missing amount from the drawers came to $45,336.

There was also $10,784 missing from the coin lobby, $6,551 from the cash machine and $3,648 from the vault from 2004 to 2015. The sum of all the missing money was $129,409.25.

Documents say Veis told police he suspected Teel, the head teller, because she was the only one who was alone when handling money.

Two Havre Police Department officials interviewed Teel that day.

Teel described to the officers her daily work routine. She also said that although she was supposed to wait for one of the other tellers to arrive before opening the credit union in the morning, the teller was usually late, so she goes in by herself to get her work done.

"Teel denied any involvement in any thefts from the Credit Union," charging documents say.

Police interviewed two other tellers at the credit union later that day.

The first teller said she started counting her drawer more often about five years ago, when somewhere between $500 and $1000 in $1 bills went missing. The woman said she did not trust Teel and "stopped short of saying Teel was the one taking all the money," court documents say. The teller said Teel accused her and another teller of having "trust issues" when they started counting their money more often. The teller, like Veis, said Teel is the only one who was ever alone with money.

The second teller said she noticed that her drawer was frequently coming up short and she thought it "weird" because the missing amount was always in increments of $20. The teller said most of the shortages seemed to be happening between 8 and 11 a.m. She said the money stopped disappearing when she, along with the aforementioned teller, started counting money more often.

The second teller added that Teel "took issue" with her counting her cash drawer in the morning. Teel, again, is cited as telling the tellers that they have "trust issues," files say.

While the second teller said she did not believe anyone was stealing money, she did say "Teel would have the most opportunity if a theft was happening."

Teel was brought back in for an interview with police two days later, Feb. 5.

Court documents say she was told she was suspected of stealing money. Files say Teel initially had a "weak" denial and that she was confused about what to do. Court documents say she called and spoke to her husband, asked for an attorney and gave police her keys to the credit union and access card before leaving.

Later that day, Teel called the police station and went back and "admitted she had committed the thefts as accused in the earlier interview," charging documents say.

"Teel stated she needed to come clean and she could not live with herself if she didn't. She stated she is not a bad, horrible person," files say.

Teel told investigators she didn't remember exactly when she started stealing money, maybe three or four years ago and that she admitted to taking from some of the tellers, but not the two who were interviewed earlier "because they counted their money so often," documents say. When asked if she took from a certain teller six times throughout the year, Teel said it seemed excessive, but that she did not know. She said she did not take money every time the canisters were filled and that she never took $1,000.

When asked if she took $300 or $400 at a time, she said she could not remember, files say.

She said the last time she took money was in August or September, after the Shelby embezzlement was discovered, and the last time she stole from an ATM was about two years ago, before the new ATM procedures made her stop, files say. She said the most she took was "a couple hundred," by lifting up the lid and pulling out the cash.

Teel told officers there was no one else involved in the theft.

Teel said she didn't know why she took the money, adding she is not a gambler or a drinker, and that she didn't need it because her husband took care of her.