A Puyallup woman was charged with first-degree theft on May 8 for allegedly embezzling approximately $15,000 from the Federal Way Community Center over the course of two years.

According to charging documents, 26-year-old Madison D. Armstrong, who worked at the center, did this by creating fake refunds when the pool was contaminated with vomit or fecal matter between February 2011 and August 2013.

“(Armstrong) stated that the refund clusters occurred when customers were refunded money after ‘poop’ was found in the pool,” the charging documents state.

Federal Way Police Detective Annette Scholl obtained records for instances in which the pool was closed for the aforementioned reasons, and found that nine instances coincided with the unique pattern that Armstrong’s alleged embezzlement made in the community center’s computer systems.

The documents indicate that Armstrong’s alleged embezzlement was first discovered on Sept. 6, 2013, when she performed her refund routine on a machine that was logged in under a co-worker’s credentials. Surveillance footage also shows Armstrong taking the money from the co-workers till and moving it to her till, and then eventually pocketing the money, which totaled $101 in that instance. The documents note that Armstrong said did this to pay off various bills.

First-degree theft is a felony and is punishable by a maximum of 10 years in jail and a $20,000 fine.