By Elizabeth Evans
The York Dispatch
NEWBERRY, Pa. — Goldsboro Fire Co.'s longtime treasurer embezzled more than $100,000 from the fire company over the past seven years, police allege — and he’s considered a suspect in thefts of significant amounts of money from a second volunteer fire company as well.
Newberry Township Police filed charges on Wednesday against 70-year-old Miles K. Hummer, owner of the Goldsboro Marina.
However, it’s unclear when Hummer will be arraigned on the third-degree felony charges of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received, theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception and receiving stolen property.
That’s because Hummer, of 2509 Parkway Blvd. in Harrisburg, recently suffered a stroke, according to charging documents.
Newberry Township Police Chief John Snyder said he does not know when Hummer’s medical condition will allow him to be arraigned.
“He was thought to be an upstanding citizen, and no one believed otherwise,” Snyder said. “The fire company, of course, is devastated by this. They had no knowledge that this was going on — they have good people there.”
“If it’s true, it would be despicable,” Goldsboro Mayor Joan Harrold said. “But until it’s proven, it’s just an allegation.”
2nd investigation: Penbrook Borough Police in Dauphin County confirmed they are investigating thefts from the Penbrook Volunteer Fire Co., where Hummer was treasurer.
Penbrook Police Officer Steve Mowery confirmed Hummer is considered a suspect in those thefts, which were reported to police by fire company officials on July 2.
“At this point, the loss is going to be in the tens of thousands of dollars,” Mowery said. “The fire company is still going through their records. Until we get all the numbers ... we’re not going to know how much (is missing) and who is responsible.”
Mowery said when the investigation is complete, police will be filing charges against the person or people responsible for the thefts.
Financial problems? Newberry Township investigators learned that the Goldsboro Marina has been having “severe financial problems” and was unable to make its payroll several times recently, according to charging documents.
Hummer was treasurer for Goldsboro Fire Co. for more than 20 years, but after his stroke the fire company appointed a new treasurer, who discovered money was missing, according to Hummer’s arrest affidavit.
Since 2003, Hummer wrote fire-company checks to his personal bank account, the marina and his cell-phone provider totaling $116,927, the affidavit states.
“It’s a huge amount of money,” Snyder said.
There were no financial records kept for Goldsboro Fire. Co. prior to 2003, so investigators could not look back any further than that year, Snyder said.
Goldsboro Fire Co. requires two officers’ signatures on checks, but Hummer allegedly got around that by having fire company president Denny Lebo sign blank checks, “due to the large volume of checks that go through the fire company,” the arrest affidavit alleges.
“This action has been a continuous non-stop course of conduct from 2003 to the present time,” the affidavit states.
Snyder said Lebo had no idea Hummer was allegedly embezzling money.
“It breaks all of our hearts, it really does,” Lebo said. “It’s a guy everybody trusted. He’s been there for years and years. It just saddens all of us.”
Lebo said the Goldsboro Fire Co. isn’t in financial trouble and is current on all its bills.
“But we have a mortgage and fire-truck payment,” he said. “If it weren’t for this (alleged embezzlement), those would’ve been paid off by now.”
Penbrook Fire Chief Joe Nickle said Hummer had been treasurer for Penbrook’s company for 36 years.
“We were very surprised ... because we trusted the man,” Nickle said. Penbrook Volunteer Fire Co. is not in financial straits, he said.
Goldsboro Fire Chief Clint Leakway could not immediately be reached for comment.
An employee at Goldsboro Marina said Hummer remains hospitalized. It’s unclear whether he has retained an attorney.
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