{"id":38197,"date":"2022-09-27T02:25:31","date_gmt":"2022-09-27T08:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/former-bayfield-woman-suspected-of-stealing-more-than-75000-from-hoa\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:42:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:42:52","slug":"former-bayfield-woman-suspected-of-stealing-more-than-75000-from-hoa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/former-bayfield-woman-suspected-of-stealing-more-than-75000-from-hoa\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Bayfield woman suspected of stealing more than $75,000 from HOA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Law
Law enforcement is investigating the possible theft of thousands of dollars from the Clover Meadows subdivision homeowners association in Bayfield. (Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A former Bayfield woman is suspected of stealing more than $75,000 from her homeowners association over the course of about 12 years, according to the Bayfield Marshal\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Wendy Crane, 42, appeared Monday in La Plata County Court to be advised of a summons and complaint accusing her of theft, a fourth-degree felony. Formal charges are expected to be filed Oct. 21.<\/p>\n

Crane answered routine questions from La Plata County Judge Anne Woods with \u201cyes, ma\u2019am,\u201d and \u201cyes, your honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Efforts to reach Crane after the hearing were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

Crane is suspected of completing multiple money transfers from the Clover Meadows HOA bank account into her personal account, said Brandon Tisher, interim marshal for the Bayfield Marshal\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Crane served on the board of directors for the HOA.<\/p>\n

\u201c2010 was the start of when she started making transfers, and it looks like right around the first part of 2022 is when the accounts were closed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

She made several transfers over the years, some for hundreds of dollars and others for thousands of dollars, he said. It wasn\u2019t like she was skimming money on a regular basis; rather, the transfers were more frequent during some periods of time and less active during others.<\/p>\n

Tisher is unsure why Crane took the money or how she used it. As of last week, she had not yet been interviewed by an investigator.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything that he (the investigator) got was from search warrants,\u201d Tisher said.<\/p>\n

Clover Meadows residents who attended Monday\u2019s advisement hearing told The Durango Herald<\/em> they feel betrayed by her actions. They paid about $156 per year in HOA dues, which was supposed to be available to maintain water services, in the event of an emergency or if major improvements needed to be made, they said.<\/p>\n

The subdivision has about 65 homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing to learn we can\u2019t trust our neighbors as much as we thought we could,\u201d said Benjamin Ferrier, a resident.<\/p>\n

Richey Weinstein, another resident, said it was a difficult decision to pursue charges against a fellow neighbor, \u201cbut there was a line that was crossed, and I think it really took us by surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

The saddest part of the episode is that neighbors rallied to support Crane in 2015 when her 12-year-old daughter, Aria, died from Hodgkin\u2019s disease<\/a>, said Richey\u2019s wife, Wendi Weinstein.<\/p>\n

Ferrier urged HOA residents to be involved, make sure annual meetings are held and to request financial statements at those meetings. Things got to a point in which Crane was running the board by herself without checks and balances, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Small Town America, you just kind of take for granted that we\u2019re all upstanding people,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 To me, it\u2019s the abuse of trust that bothers me more than the money.\u201d<\/p>\n

shane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

occurred over 12 years at Clover Meadows subdivision, according to Marshal\u2019s Office<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[133,168,907,28,52,74],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-38197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-embezzlement","tag-headlines","tag-law-enforcement","tag-theft"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83949,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38197\/revisions\/83949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38197"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=38197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}