Woman surrenders in Sugar Grove bank theft case
A 30-year-old former Sugar Grove bank employee recently surrendered to police on charges she stole up to $100,000 over a four-year span, according to police and court records.
Alyson M. Ruggie, of the 500 block of Gregory Lane, Plano, turned herself in to Sugar Grove police May 23 after being indicted on felony charges of misappropriation of financial institution property between $10,000 and $100,000, theft and theft by deception, according to Kane County court records and Sugar Grove Police Chief Pat Rollins.
Ruggie faces up to seven years in prison if convicted of felony theft from American Heartland Bank, 799 Heartland Drive; probation also is possible.
Rollins said Ruggie is accused of stealing somewhere in the $90,000 range from the bank, not actual customers.
"This was a great piece of work that was done by our department, as well as the investigation of the external auditor to determine there was something wrong," Rollins said Thursday.
Police executed a search warrant of a safety deposit box at the bank after an auditor found a discrepancy of about $104,000 on Jan. 24, according to court records and a search warrant.
The search of a safety deposit box turned up empty, but the auditor spoke to Ruggie, who claimed there was a late-day federal reserve transfer to the bank but could not produce the paperwork to prove it, according to the warrant.
Ruggie, who was identified in the search warrant, also spent 30 minutes in the washroom and appeared to have been crying when she came out, according to the warrant.
Sugar Grove police also interviewed Ruggie, who told them that she stole $104,000 between early 2011 and early 2012 to help pay the mortgage on her home, which was in foreclosure, according to the search warrant.
Ruggie is free after posting $5,000 of $50,000 bail and is due in court June 27. It was not immediately clear if she was represented by an attorney.