Girl Scout troop leader stole thousands of dollars in cookie money, Ohio official says

A Girl Scout troop leader in Ohio has been indicted after she was “caught with her hand in the cookie jar,” the state attorney general said Tuesday.

Jill Gauthier, 49, is accused of stealing $12,500 from Girl Scout cookie sales and event fees, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office said in a news release.

Parents turned the troop leader in after they became concerned about how she was using the money, according to the agency.

Officials said Gauthier was the only person who had access to the troop’s funds.

The Pataskala woman is accused of depositing cookie money and event fees collected from parents into personal bank accounts and using the funds for personal purchases.

An investigation revealed she’d been skimming funds for about five years, according to officials.

Gauthier was indicted on one count of theft — a fourth-degree felony — by a grand jury, the attorney general’s office said. She’s due back in court May 5.

Pataskala is roughly 20 miles east of Columbus.

It’s not the first time a scout leader has been accused of stealing troop funds.

In 2016, a Boy Scout troop leader in Tennessee was arrested after police said he stole more than $95,000 from his troop, WREG reported. Other troop leaders were alerted to the situation after a check for a trip bounced, according to the outlet.

The next year, a Boy Scout troop leader in Michigan was accused of stealing roughly $5,000 in cash that a troop member was raising to help a school buy a new playground, WWMT reported.

In New Jersey, a Girl Scout troop leader was removed from her post in 2019 after her story about a man swiping $1,000 in cookie money fell apart under scrutiny from authorities, according to NBC News.