SEBASTIAN — Members of the Sebastian Elks Lodge don’t want to talk about the more than $100,000 their former treasurer stole from the organization, but police say the group was extremely upset over the theft and “wanted blood.”
When Andy Simso turned over the Elks’ ledger books to the incoming treasure last spring, he told Scott Johnson he had taken money from the account but he had every intention of repaying his debt.
Simso, who in 2008 was named Officer of the Year shortly after he was named treasurer of the fraternal group, hedged his bets that he would make good on his promise to repay the money he stole so he could pay down his credit card debt and give money to his children.
“The Elks wanted to tell everybody not to talk about it, but they were really upset with the situation,” said Det. Rich Snell, a lead detective on the case who spent months pouring over back account statements and ledgers.
The Elks still don’t want to talk about the matter publically, but they did press hard for an arrest.
“They wanted blood,” said Snell.
James O’Neill, the lodge’s president, told Sebastian River News that the sooner the group can put the matter behind them, the better.
But details of the arrest warrant as well as additional information provided by Sebastian police reveal how a 69-year-old man gambled away his good name, the financial stability of the Elks Lodge, and potentially his freedom.
Simso was led from his Sebastian home in handcuffs Aug. 13, less than four months after he initially met a police officer in his driveway to discuss the money taken from the Elks’ account.
At that time, he said he had gambled with the money and he was trying to help out his children as well as pay his own debts.
Simso, according to the arrest warrant, told police that he was issued an ATM card for the Elks Lodge in April 2011.
Police discovered that within four months Simso had been taking money from the account for his own use and that he continued take money until March of this year.
Many of the withdrawals – to the tune of $102,600 – were done at the now mostly shuttered gambling parlors called adult arcades or internet cafes that blanketed area strips malls before they were outlawed by the legislature last spring.
Between November and April, when Simso handed over the books and his title of treasurer to Johnson, Simso had paid back $59,190, according to police who provided more details than the arrest warrant which was unsealed last week.
According to the warrant, police came back to interview Simso again in his driveway after it was determined he had written checks from the account to himself and that money – the grand prize for Bingo – from the lodge’s safe was missing.
Simso told police he took the $3,000 from the safe and said the check he wrote himself was because he thought he overpaid the Elks Lodge, to the tune of $2,760, when in fact he owed much more.
Police say the missing money from the safe over the years amounted to more than $10,000.
To date, Simso still has not repaid $61,315 to the lodge, said Sebastian Officer Steve Marcinik, a police spokesman.
