Court docs: School admin used stolen credit card to make $85 Buffalo Wild Wings purchase

HENDRICKS COUNTY, Ind. – The former director of Harris Academy in Brownsburg is charged with fraud and theft after she admitted she found a wallet and used the credit cards to make purchases.

Jessica Earnest, 39, has since resigned from her position, sources told FOX59/CBS4.

The incident was reported in February. A woman came to the police department to report she’d been a victim of fraud. She’d lost her wallet and discovered someone had used her credit cards to make unauthorized purchases.

Earnest was the person who found the wallet. But when she returned it, Earnest apologized and tried to blame the unauthorized purchases on her children. She told the woman her kids found the wallet and used a credit card to buy something.

But the fraud victim didn’t buy Earnest’s account. On the morning of Feb. 5, someone tried to use a different card during a drive-thru purchase at an area Starbucks. The transaction was declined, and the woman went to Starbucks to see if she could learn any more information.

Workers provided her with a description of the customer who’d tried to use the card—and the description matched Earnest to a tee.

At that point, Earnest’s demeanor at the police station changed, according to the probable cause affidavit. She began to “voluntarily make statements” about what happened. She admitted she’d found the wallet and used the credit cards inside.

During an interview, she called it a “dumb decision” and said she didn’t touch any cash inside the wallet. She told investigators she found the wallet in the parking lot at Pine Tree Elementary and used a credit or debit card to make an $85 purchase from Buffalo Wild Wings the night before (Feb. 4).

She called in the order herself and said her children were not involved, according to the affidavit.

Earnest said she attempted to use a different card at Starbucks on Feb. 5 but was unsuccessful. She claimed she “did not understand the severity of using someone’s credit or debit card” and thought she would just “replace the money” she’d spent.

The Hendricks County Prosecutor’s Office charged her with misdemeanor counts of fraud and theft.