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The town of Delaware’s Volunteer Firefighter Chief Jared Collins was arrested last week in Nowata County on six counts of embezzlement. According to an arrest affidavit, Collins is alleged of embezzling over $60,000 in public funds afforded to the Fire Department for his own personal use.

It is alleged that Collins had been embezzling public funds yearly, since 2017 up until 2022. Of the $60,000 + spent, $57,908 of it were cash withdrawals that were unapproved. The other suspicious transactions made, were payments to AT&T in the amounts of $678, $985.09, & $217.64. Collins also made unapproved transactions to PSOs in the amount of $286.73 and $166.82.

The last fraudulent activity discovered was unapproved payments of $885.58 in total in four different payments made to Lowe’s. Collins was able to make a $100,000 bond and his next court date is set June 5^th