EPHRATA, Pa. — A former employee at the Ephrata Performing Arts Center in Lancaster County has been charged with making more than $2,800 in unauthorized purchases using the company's credit card and unauthorized checks, police said.
Megan Riggs, 38, of Elizabethtown, is charged with a felony count of access device fraud and a misdemeanor count of theft by deception after Ephrata Borough Police claim she made 22 fraudulent purchases using EPAC's credit card and wrote seven unauthorized checks between July 2021 and August 2022, when she had access to EPAC's credit and debit cards.
She was charged this week at the conclusion of an investigation launched in August 2023, when staff at EPAC contacted police after unsuccessfully trying for more than a year to get Riggs to provide bank statements and reimbursement, according to the criminal complaint affidavit filed by investigators.
The investigation concluded that Riggs made 22 fraudulent purchases totaling $2,100.71 with EPAC's credit and debit card for personal items. These purchases included five 19-gallon gas tank fill-ups, dinner for two at Iron Hill Brewery, and multiple RedShelf e-textbooks. Some of the items were mis-entered in EPAC's Quickbooks account as "Amazon.com" or "Giant Food Stores," police claim.
The seven unauthorized checks Riggs is accused of writing include six checks to herself and one check to a coworker, whom she reimbursed for fronting her American Legion Cloister Post membership dues, police said. The unauthorized checks totaled $740, according to police.
Riggs was arraigned Wednesday before Magisterial District Judge Torrey J. Landis, who set bail at $5,000. A preliminary hearing has not yet been scheduled, according to court records.
