{"id":328559,"date":"2024-08-21T16:04:34","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T21:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=328559"},"modified":"2024-08-22T10:11:20","modified_gmt":"2024-08-22T15:11:20","slug":"gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/","title":{"rendered":"Gambler Gets Nine Years for Stealing $1.5M Worth of Chicken Wings"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Illinois judge had a bone to pick last week with a former food service director for South Chicago schools who stole 11K cases of chicken wings valued at $1.5 million and gambled away the proceeds.<\/p>\n

\"Vera
Vera Liddell, above, placed hundreds of unauthorized orders for chicken wings that were paid by the district, but never reached the mouths of students. Instead, Liddell resold them to unspecified parties and gambled with the proceeds. (Image: New York Pots\/Casino.org<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Judge Michele Pitman of the Circuit Court of Cook County\u2019s Sixth Municipal District sentenced Vera Liddell, 68, to nine years in prison for felony theft after her guilty plea last Friday.<\/p>\n

Liddell embarked on her crazy fraud spree in July 2020 at the height of the pandemic when students were learning remotely and weren’t permitted to be physically present at school.<\/strong><\/p>\n

During this time, the school district continued to provide meals for underprivileged students, which could be picked up by their families.<\/p>\n

Scheme Takes Wings <\/strong><\/h2>\n

From July that year through February 2022, Liddell placed hundreds of unauthorized orders for chicken wings with Gordon Food Service, the school district\u2019s supplier, according to court documents. Believing these were legitimate orders, Gordon Foods billed the district, which paid the invoices.<\/p>\n

But the chickens came home to roost when a 2022 audit revealed that the food service department had already maxed out its budget for the entire year by $300K, and it was only January.<\/p>\n

\n

The district\u2019s business manager then uncovered numerous invoices signed by Lidell for vast quantities of chicken wings — something that would never be served to students because they contain small bones and present a choking risk.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Investigators analyzed security video which showed that Liddel used the school district\u2019s cargo vans to pick up the produce. It\u2019s unclear where it went after that.<\/p>\n

NFL\u2019s Chris Jones Intervenes<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Liddell\u2019s lawyer, Patrick O\u2019Byrne, told People<\/em> last week that his client was a churchgoing woman with no previous criminal record.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s just a little sweetheart that\u2019s got a gambling problem,\u201d O\u2019Byrne said: \u201cShe feels beyond terrible about this. This is totally uncharacteristic of her. It was the disease taking over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things got even weirder when NFL star Chris Jones appeared to offer to repay the $1.5 million if it would get Liddel out of prison.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll pay for the wings that she stole to get her free,” he tweeted on the X platform.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

O\u2019Byrne told People<\/em> that Jones\u2019 people had been in contact, adding that he hoped \u201ceverything works out so that we can get her out.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how much impact the Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackles\u2019 offer, if serious, could have on Liddell\u2019s predicament since she’s already been sentenced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Illinois judge had a bone to pick last week with a former food service director for South Chicago schools who stole 11K cases of chicken wings valued at $1.5 million and gambled away the proceeds. Judge Michele Pitman of the Circuit Court of Cook County\u2019s Sixth Municipal District sentenced Vera Liddell, 68, to nine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":328560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[82229,92102,92103,82614,81776,92101],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGambler Gets Nine Years for Stealing $1.5M Worth of Chicken Wings<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Vera Liddell, a former food service director for South Chicago schools, sentenced to 9 years for stealing $1.5 million chicken wings.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gambler Gets Nine Years for Stealing $1.5M Worth of Chicken Wings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Vera Liddell, a former food service director for South Chicago schools, sentenced to 9 years for stealing $1.5 million chicken wings.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-08-21T21:04:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-08-22T15:11:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/chicken.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1104\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"653\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/\",\"name\":\"Gambler Gets Nine Years for Stealing $1.5M Worth of Chicken Wings\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/chicken.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-08-21T21:04:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-22T15:11:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Vera Liddell, a former food service director for South Chicago schools, sentenced to 9 years for stealing $1.5 million chicken wings.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/chicken.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/chicken.jpg\",\"width\":1104,\"height\":653,\"caption\":\"Vera Liddell, above, placed hundreds of unauthorized orders for chicken wings which were paid by the district but never reached the mouths of students. Instead, Liddell resold them to unspecified parties and gambled with the proceeds. (Image: New York Pots\/Casino.org)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Crime & Scandals\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Gambler Gets Nine Years for Stealing $1.5M Worth of Chicken Wings\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Gambler Gets Nine Years for Stealing $1.5M Worth of Chicken Wings","description":"Vera Liddell, a former food service director for South Chicago schools, sentenced to 9 years for stealing $1.5 million chicken wings.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Gambler Gets Nine Years for Stealing $1.5M Worth of Chicken Wings","og_description":"Vera Liddell, a former food service director for South Chicago schools, sentenced to 9 years for stealing $1.5 million chicken wings.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2024-08-21T21:04:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-08-22T15:11:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1104,"height":653,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/chicken.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/","name":"Gambler Gets Nine Years for Stealing $1.5M Worth of Chicken Wings","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/chicken.jpg","datePublished":"2024-08-21T21:04:34+00:00","dateModified":"2024-08-22T15:11:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Vera Liddell, a former food service director for South Chicago schools, sentenced to 9 years for stealing $1.5 million chicken wings.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/chicken.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/chicken.jpg","width":1104,"height":653,"caption":"Vera Liddell, above, placed hundreds of unauthorized orders for chicken wings which were paid by the district but never reached the mouths of students. Instead, Liddell resold them to unspecified parties and gambled with the proceeds. (Image: New York Pots\/Casino.org)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gambler-gets-nine-years-for-stealing-1-5m-worth-of-chicken-wings\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Crime & Scandals","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Gambler Gets Nine Years for Stealing $1.5M Worth of Chicken Wings"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328559"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328559"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328630,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328559\/revisions\/328630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}