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Treasurer for club accused of theft
By DONG-PHUONG NGUYEN
© St. Petersburg Times, TAMPA -- When members of a local women's racing club decided in May to spend their fundraising money on equipment, they turned to their treasurer for their account balance. But Bobbie Cox wasn't able to produce bank documention of the $21,000 that the group had raised three months earlier. So the club secretary reported it to authorities. On Monday, Hillsborough County sheriff's officials charged Cox, 52, with grand theft. She was jailed briefly before a judge released her on her own recognizance. The money has not been accounted for; Cox told friends that the funds were stolen from her Riverview home. But the club's secretary, Sharon McCubbins, said Monday that Cox's story just didn't jibe. Members of the close-knit club, the Tampa Bay Women's Racing Association for Automobile Safety, don't know what to think, McCubbins said. "I consider her to be a real close friend," McCubbins said. "It just looks bad. I don't want to believe the worst in her. I don't know what to do." McCubbins, of Gibsonton, said she has not spoken to Cox since telling her that she was going to report the disappearance to police. The club just wants its money back, McCubbins said. The group raised the money during a charity event in February at the East Bay Raceway. They sold raffle tickets for $1, and a winner was selected each night. At the end of the 17-day run, Cox, who has been treasurer for at least four years, promised to deposit the $21,000 into the group's bank account, McCubbins said. Cox told club members that the money was in the bank in March, McCubbins said. In May, they talked about spending the money, she said. In mid-July, Cox told McCubbins that her house had been robbed on May 25 and that burglars had stolen the money, McCubbins said. But Cox had filed a police report on the break-in and did not list the money as part of the stolen property, McCubbins said. The day McCubbins called police, Cox filed an amended list, McCubbins said. "We saw each other every Saturday night at the races and she never told me the money was (stolen)," McCubbins said. Cox did not return a message left at her home on Monday.
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