March 16, 2026 | Mark Luis Foster
Does your HOA have a debit card attached to its operating account? If the answer is yes, you may want to think again and consider it a really dumb practice.
A St. Louis County, Missouri, board leader (and now formerly, thereof) is in Dutch for stealing money from her HOA with a debit card that was issued to her. She is now charged with seven counts of stealing $750 or more and five counts of fraudulent use of a credit/debit device. The woman is currently being held on a $100,000 bond. Her total take was more than $17K.
Far be it from me to think a debit card is a little loosey-goosey for a board member to be running around and using, but hey, what’s not to trust, right? From Fox2Now in St. Louis:
According to records, the Wedgwood Homeowner’s Association contacted police after noticing a number unauthorized purchases and withdrawals from the checking account between July 2025 and November 2025.
What a surprise. The story goes on to list the fraudulent transactions. I include them below:
- $5,600: Cash withdrawal (July 2, 2025)
- $2,000: Cash withdrawal (July 2, 2025)
- $1,132.78: Southwest Airlines (July 11, 2025)
- $100: Mack’s Automotive (July 28, 2025)
- $1,474.73: Holiday Inn (July 29, 2025)
- $200: Apple cash (July 30, 2025)
- $1,800: Cash withdrawal (Aug. 4, 2025)
- $251.08: Ameren (Aug. 21, 2025)
- $1,700: Cash withdrawal (Sept. 5, 2025)
- $500: Cash withdrawal (Oct. 6, 2025)
- $752: Ameren (Oct. 29, 2025)
- $2,000: Cash withdrawal (Nov. 4, 2025)
The Southwest Airlines trip was to Mexico (every board leader needs a trip now and then, right?) and the two July 2025 transactions correspond with the woman’s debt to a landlord. Gotta pull that cash from somewhere.
One debit card in the wrong hands is one debit card too many. And you can read the whole story HERE.
