Up to $50,000 Embezzled from Bethlehem YMCA: Police

Bethlehem police said they are investigating the possible theft of between $25,000 and $50,000 from the Bethlehem YMCA by an employee of the nonprofit organization.

The same employee may have also fraudulently applied for between $9,400 and $14,400 in grant money, police said.

At this point, police are saying little else about the investigation, which began Thursday with a telephone call from the organization, which has its offices at 430 E. Broad St.

According to The Express Times, the Bethlehem YMCA faced possible closure after losing more than $556,000 in revenue between 2007 and 2010.

Now the Bethlehem chapter is looking at merging with four other chapters including Nazareth and Easton, the newspaper reported. A vote is scheduled in October.

This would be no less than the third report this year of a Bethlehem nonprofit being victimized by internal theft or fraud.

In January, Bradley H. Scheetz, the former president of the Bethlehem Steelers youth football association, was charged with embezzling more than $34,000 of the organization’s funds between April 2011 and October 2012.

In March, John D. Lindemuth, the former manager of the Masonic Temple Banquet Hall in South Bethlehem, was charged with stealing more than $225,000 from the facility.

In addition to allegedly skimming cash, charges against Lindemuth say he falsified records, charged customers for larger banquets than those actually held and pocketed the difference, and later, collected money for banquets that were never held.