Fire volunteers stung again

By Times Staff Writer
Published November 7, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Alicia Puertes, 32, is charged with stealing from the Land O'Lakes volunteer fire department.

LAND O'LAKES - The Land O'Lakes Volunteer Fire Department may have been betrayed by one of its elected officials. Again.

Friday, Pasco deputies arrested the department's treasurer, Alicia Long Puertas, on charges she stole more than $22,000 from the organization.

According to deputies, Puertas, 32, used the funds to pay her utilities and buy a car.

Deputies say Puertas told them she began pilfering funds in July 2005. Since then, they allege, she wrote 13 checks worth almost $8,000 from the department's bank account and deposited more than $14,000 into her personal credit card and checking accounts.

Puertas spent two days at the Land O'Lakes jail on grand theft charges and was released Sunday on $5,000 bail.

Her arrest comes three years after the department's former chief, James Byrne, embezzled nearly $28,000 from the organization and used the money for jewelry, stereo systems and airline tickets. In 2006 a circuit judge ordered him to pay back the funds in monthly installments of $156.09.

[Last modified November 6, 2007, 21:57:11]