Whopping $1.5 million chicken wing heist lands Illinois school employee in prison

68-year-old Vera Liddell pulled off the chicken wing heist from July 2020 to February 2022. She pleaded guilty before being sentenced to 9 years.

Clucking consequences have caught up with the actions of an Illinois school cafeteria director, who will now spend the next nine years of her life in prison for stealing chicken wings worth $1.5 million.

Vera Liddell was sentenced to 9 years in prison for $1.5 million chicken wing heist.(Cook County Sheriff's Office)

68-year-old Vera Liddell reportedly stole 11,000 cases of chicken wings during the peak of the COVID pandemic. Although the finger-licking snack was reserved for students, Liddell took full advantage of her position as the food service director at Harvey School District 152. Her scheme of stealing these flightless delights took flight in July 2020, and continued all through February 2022, the Cook County State Attorney's Office said, as per ABC 7 Chicago.

How was Vera Liddell's chicken wing heist unearthed?

Officials claimed that the former Harvey school employee's crime was only discovered when the district realised that the school system had hit its finances way beyond the original budget.

Reports suggest that a school business manager noticed their food costs had jumped $300,000 over budget even with months remaining in the school year. Her routine mid-year audit ultimately busted Liddell's crime.

“She discovered individual invoices signed by Liddell for massive quantities of chicken wings, an item that was never served to students because they contain bones,” prosecutors said, per WGN's report.

The former school worker served as the district's food service head for 10 years. She pleaded guilty before her nine-year prison sentence was finalised, WGN reported. US reports also reported that Liddell had ordered the aforementioned insane amount of food from the school district's food provider, Gordon Food Services, and used a school cargo van to pick it up.

Court records show that they were familiar with the former Harvey employee “due to the massive amount of chicken wings she would purchase.”

As the crime took place at the time of the pandemic, schools were closed, but the district was still sending out meal kits for families to pick up during the transition to the remote studying setup.

Liddell was first charged with theft and operating a criminal enterprise in January 2023.