Bank teller charged with stealing $14,000 from woman, 70

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

NORTHAMPTON - When Agnes Ting, 70, noticed thousands of dollars missing from her Bank of America checking account, she never suspected that one of the bank's tellers was stealing from her.

However, after learning that a 21-year-old teller employed at two of the bank's local branches reportedly admitted to taking $14,000 from her account to pay her bills, Ting was shocked.

Claire O. Vukovich, of 14 Center St., pleaded innocent Monday in Northampton District Court to 14 counts of larceny from a person over the age of 60.

On Dec. 14, Ting, of Amherst, said she alerted local police to a series of unauthorized withdrawals from her personal checking account after noticing several thousand dollars missing from her monthly statement.

"I saw on my statement that $3,000 in cash had been taken out of my account somewhere in Easthampton, and I never ever go to Easthampton," Ting said.

Then, Ting said, she was even more shocked when bank officials told her that 11 similar transactions had been recorded in Northampton within the previous month and that they would launch an internal investigation.

"I'm an old lady, and I trust the bank so I wasn't checking my account online," Ting said. "From now on I will go online and check in on it from time to time just to be safe."

After Ting reported the error to police, Detective Corey J. Robinson received an affidavit from Donna MacAdams, senior investigator in the bank's corporate security department, who provided bank records, surveillance photographs and a three-page signed statement from Vukovich in which she allegedly admitted to stealing $14,000 from Ting's account over two months.

Bank records indicated that Vukovich gained access to Ting's account 14 times between Nov. 19 and Dec. 14, taking $1,000 each time. According to records, 11 of the transactions took place while Vukovich was working at the bank's King Street branch office and the other three were committed from behind the counter at the bank's Main Street branch in Easthampton.

"To be honest, if she had taken out $2,000 just one time I probably would have never noticed," Ting said. "If she hadn't gotten so greedy it would have taken longer for me to find out."

In her signed admission, Vukovich reportedly told investigators she had begun stealing from Ting because she had overdrawn her own checking account by $800 and continued to do so over the next two months "because nothing had happened to her in regard to the thefts."

T.J. Crawford, a spokesman for the bank, declined to comment on the case because "it is an ongoing legal issue."

Ting said she has since been issued a new checking account with the bank and all of the missing money has been returned.

Vukovich, who has no prior criminal record, reportedly told police she used the $14,000 to pay bills, according to court documents.

Judge Richard J. Carey released Vukovich on her own recognizance on the condition hat she stay away from and have no contact with the alleged victim. She is scheduled to appear in court for a pretrial hearing March 31.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com