In October of 2024, contact was made with the Price City Police Department (PCPD) in regard to an employee possibly stealing funds from REMAX Bridge Realty.
Concerns stemmed around 43-year-old Katie Jo Childs, who was employed as a property manager for the realty at that time. REMAX Bridge Realty representatives reported noticing several rental properties that were currently occupied, but delinquent on rent to the point of being evicted.
When this was discovered, the report shows that Childs was not at work and staff began to contact tenants to inquire about the delinquencies. Several properties showed rent as delinquent for several months.
Initial contact with the tenants resulted in receipts and transaction histories that detailed rent being paid to Childs via several different means, such as in person with cash or through apps such as Venmo and Cash App. According to the probable cause, realty reps stated that the procedures for collecting rent from tenants “is done either through direct payments through Bridge Realty and their front office secretaries or through their online portal called Appfolio”.
Childs was reportedly not authorized to collect rent payments from tenants in any of the manners that had been reported to them. Tenants initially contacted provided copies of cash receipts that had been made by Childs, along with screenshots of transaction payments made via Venmo and Cash App.
Text conversations between Childs and tenants were provided as well. In these screenshots, Childs provided the tenants with links to mobile apps that she directed tenants to make their rental payments through.
Several tenant accounts were reviewed by Bridge Realty staff, in which discrepancies were discovered in how rent had been listed. Some of these discrepancies included the altering of move in dates. In these cases, tenants reported paying Childs a security deposit and first-month rent through the aforementioned channels.
“None of those funds were ever listed properly through Bridge Realty and the rental account did not reflect the actual move-in date or money being received for this time period,” the probable cause read.
Additionally, there were reportedly rent credits listed on the accounts for repairs that were claimed to be completed by tenants and were not. Staff discovered that Childs manipulated Appfolio, as well as portfolios for several properties, to seemingly hide suspicious activity.
Property owners had also paid Childs for construction and improvements on properties that were either never completed or, in some cases, contractors were not paid. In April 2023, Childs began working for REMAX Bridge Realty. They were able to provide information regarding numerous properties in which funds were unaccounted for over the time period that she was employed and acting as property manager.
From there, follow-ups were conducted by both the realty and the PCPD with tenants, and further information was completed via subpoenas to Venmo, Cash App and Childs Financial Institution, confirming transaction information from tenants to Childs.
The probable cause stated “records indicated that these received funds were then either spent or used to pay other debts of Childs and were never receipted to or forwarded to Bridge Realty. In essence, these funds paid by tenants and, in some cases, property owners looked to have been treated as another form of income by Childs.”
Nearly 50 properties in Carbon County were reportedly affected by this. The reported amount was listed at over $116,000 over the time period that Childs was employed at REMAX Bridge Realty. The impact of the business due to Childs’ actions came to about $74,000, accumulating to a total loss associated with Childs’ actions to exceed $220,000.
Bridge Realty stated that as a property manager, Childs did not have the authority to accept rent or other funds by tenants. All payments for Bridge Realty are conducted through either the front office secretaries or via the online portal.
Childs was charged with second degree felony theft and second degree communications fraud due to these actions.