COLUMBUS – Police Tuesday caught up with a woman accuse of swiping donations for the families of two slain officers and using it to play the lottery.
Columbus police officers arrested 62-year-old Donna Lee Ater and charged her with theft, according to posts on the division’s social media pages.
An employee at Average Joe’s Pub and Grill, 1126 W. Henderson Road, noticed their donation box to raise money for two Westerville officers killed in the line of duty only had a few dollars instead of around $300 it had contained earlier, police said.
The employee noticed on business surveillance video that a woman who was playing Keno took the cash. She had left before anyone could confront her.
Anthony Morelli and Eric Joering were fatally shot after entering a Westerville home Feb. 10. Thirty-year-old Quentin Smith has been charged with aggravated murder in connection with their deaths.