Woman stole $313,000 in Petrified Forest National Park entrance fees

A former worker at the Petrified Forest National Park in eastern Arizona was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay back the $313,000 in entrance fees she stole.

Sharon Baldwin, 47, of Sanders, Arizona, also must undergo three years of supervised release, according to a report in the Arizona Republic. She had no earlier criminal history.

Baldwin was an employee at the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona from 2010-16 and was responsible for the accounting of entrance fees paid by park visitors, officials said. She used her position to steal more than $300,000 and altered electronic records to attempt to hide her theft, officials said.

Court documents suggested Baldwin was using the money not to lead a lavish lifestyle, but to pay bills.

“Out-of-hand bills, coupled with a desire to take care of and please her children, caused the Defendant to make bad choices,” court documents said.

The court documents stated Baldwin felt a sense of relief when she finally was prosecuted.

By my count, she stole entrance fees from well over 1,500 people over the years.

A few folks might gripe about the lenient sentence. However, almost all judges are reluctant to send a first-time offender to a crowded federal prison unless the crime was violent or the person showed no remorse.

Petrified Forest National Park remains one of the most popular attractions along Route 66, partly because an old section of the Mother Road runs through the park. The National Park Service designed a kiosk explaining Route 66 in that area and its history.

(Image of Petrified Forest National Park by Jerry and Pat Donaho via Flickr)

4 thoughts on “Woman stole $313,000 in Petrified Forest National Park entrance fees

  1. “”Out-of-hand bills, coupled with a desire to take care of and please her children, caused the Defendant to make bad choices,” court documents said.”

    So, deliberate highly involved theft over a fair period of time is now “making bad choices”!!

    And, of course, she is a “first time offender”!! First time caught, most likely. So what if the prison is crowded. So are the roads I have to drive on. And the buses and trains when I visit London. Just how many excuses can be thought up not to suitably punish a persistent criminal?

    At least Arizona does not yet have Sharia Law. So she has not had a hand cut off.

    $313,000 – about what I paid for my house. Just what sort of “out-of-hand bills” does this woman have?

    Where was her “remorse” while she was stealing the third of a million dollars?

  2. I like the way you think, Eric, and I wonder how she is going to pay back $300,000. Not a bad gamble for a year in prison and that is only if you get caught if you get caught. I’m thinking it costs about $20 to get in so I think that would be 15000 entrance fees. That was a busy woman. She should have just waited on her pension, but she will probably get it anyway. Hold that till the 300k is paid.

  3. Thanks, Tex. The same sort of short sentences are handed down in the UK for so-called “white-collar crimes”. At 15,000 entrance fees, how many years was she doing it for – and the system did not flag up something wrong. A bit like the scams that take small amounts from bank accounts and they are not noticed.

    As just punishment for all thieves I would say some sort of civilian national service, with a good percentage of the wages going to pay back the victims, whether they are individuals, companies or the state. It might take the rest of their lives, but so what? Prison sentences seem not to work – if they did there would be no theft.

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