
Former Bar Nunn Fire Chief charged with theft of Fill the Boot, department funds
CASPER, Wyo. — The former chief of the Bar Nunn Fire Department has been charged with three felonies and two misdemeanors after an investigation into allegedly missing fundraiser cash and suspicious department expenditures.
Robert William Hoover, soon to be 57 years old, was charged with the theft over $2,600 from the most recent Fill the Boot fundraiser. Firefighters nationwide participate in the annual September fundraiser during the month September to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
The Natrona County Sheriff’s Office investigation also alleges that Hoover made about $8,000 of fraudulent charges to the department’s bank account for gas, groceries and over $1,300 in Christmas decorations.
Hoover is also charged with official misconduct as a public servant and interference with the investigation.
Hoover is presumed innocent unless proven or pleading guilty.
“Bar Nunn separated Mr. Hoover from his roles and employment with Bar Nunn several weeks ago and he is not currently an employee of Bar Nunn,” Bar Nunn Clerk Kalista Schwarzrock wrote in a press release sent to Oil City News upon request for comment on Thursday.
The Town of Bar Nunn, which does not have its own police department, said in the statement that it “has conducted its own internal review of the facts and circumstances leading to these allegations and is satisfied that it has fully internally responded appropriately.”
The investigation began last October when some Fill the Boot volunteers and Bar Nunn firefighters told NCSO Investigations Cpl. Ken Jividen they’d noticed a $2,660 discrepancy between what Hoover said the department raised and the amount of deposit for the MDA. During the fundraiser, firefighters stage at various locations to collect cash and coins from people who drive up in their vehicles. Multiple participants described the collection process in which Hoover himself would drive to the stations, put all the bills into a plastic tote, and pour the coins into a boot in his vehicle.
All those questioned said that only Hoover and two family members on the department command staff had any oversight in counting the money.
Many of the witnesses recalled a Sept. 4 fire department meeting in which Hoover announcing the specific figure that Fill the Boot 2024 had raised, with many recalling that that figure was over $7,000. The official meeting notes say that Hoover thanked the department for helping to raise $7,327, according to the affidavit. One of the department’s volunteer firefighters, (who is also a member of state law enforcement) told Jividen that a similar discrepancy had been noted with regards to the 2022 Bar Nunn Fire Department Haunted House. Jividen noted that the department’s record keeping didn’t include many figures for events in previous years.
Participants told Jividen that the MDA provides participating departments with promotional materials and attire, that there is no known cost to participate, and that the MDA was universally understood to be the sole beneficiary of the fundraiser.
“There honestly should be no reason whatsoever that $7,300 shouldn’t have been donated,” a BNFD captain told Jivden.
Jividen reviewed the footage from Hilltop Bank from Sept 11. showing that Hoover went to the teller with a plastic tote full of neatly rubber-banded bills and got a cashier’s check for the MDA deposit for $4,667. The teller told Jividen that Hoover never objected to the amount, and she assured Jividen that in her 10 years of working at the bank, there had never been a problem with the accuracy of the cash counting machine. No coins were included in the transaction, Jividen noted.
Jividen spoke to Hoover, who reportedly said the money was never sorted before going to the bank, and that he usually only reported estimated fundraising amounts at meetings. Jividen noted in the report that Hoover had simply been summoned to speak with an NCSO investigator without any reason given, and yet Hoover had come with fire department account files in hand.
Hoover reportedly said he’d forgotten about two boots filled with coins at his office, saying the coins are sometimes held over and donated the next year.
Jividen collected the boots with the coins during a subsequent visit to the station. A coin machine counted them and gave a total of 495 dollars and 43 cents. Noting that the coin machine apparently malfunctioned a couple times, Jividen hand-counted the coins and came up with 495 dollars and 58 cents.
Jividen began reviewing the records for the Bar Nunn Fire Department Mutual Benefit Corporation, which had been created in November 2023. Charges on the account did not have notes attached, so Jividen tracked down the individual receipts through the vendors, according to the affidavit.
One of the firefighters told Jivden that Hoover had told the department the account was necessary to keep the Town of Bar Nunn from misappropriating the funds.
Records showed that Hoover had also sold his Polaris all-terrain vehicle to the department for $5,500, signing both the “seller” and “purchaser” lines of the unnotarized bill of sale. The amount of the sale was reflected both as a deduction from the department account and a deposit into Hoover’s personal account, the affidavit said.
One department captain told Jividen that he’d told Hoover he didn’t think the department needed the vehicle and opposed the purchase. Jividen noted that the Polaris at the fire department — retailing on average for $4,375 — was in damaged, subpar condition and worth an estimated $4,000 at most.
Another expenditure was an online purchase of over $1,300 for 12 boxes of Maker’s Mark Prismatic Collection Christmas decorations, which were found at the department. A ranking department official told Jividen the department had no need of the decorations and no one had requested them. He told Jividen that Hoover was a known participant in the annual Bar Nunn Clark Griswold Christmas Decorating Contest.
The firefighter also said that the department did not stock the station with food, as the volunteers were expected to provide their own. Several BNFD account purchases were for food and gas.
Hoover is charged with credit card fraud from March through November of last year.
He is also charged with interference for allegedly telling close members of his command staff to lie about where the money from Fill the Boot was counted. They first told Jivden they had counted the money together at the fire department, but later said Hoover himself had counted it at home.
Hoover reportedly turned himself in by arrangement on Thursday morning and appeared by video before District Attorney Dan Itzen and Circuit Court Judge Kevin Taheri in the afternoon. Itzen asked for a $5,000 cash or surety bond, a typical amount for felony theft cases as noted by Oil City News. Defense Attorney Shawn Johnson argued for a personal recognizance bond, stressing the nonviolent nature of the charges and Hoover’s lifelong ties to Natrona County.
Taheri set bond at $3,000 cash or surety.
The affidavit notes that Hoover was charged with “grand larceny/embezzlement” in 1999, and that he ultimately pleaded to a misdemeanor.
Jividen noted in the report that the Town of Bar Nunn had been conducting its own investigation into Hoover at the same time as the NCSO investigation.
The Town of Bar Nunn’s statement said that none of the allegations pertain to his former roles as head of the Maintenance Department or as a town councilman, which he has not been for two years.
“The allegations all pertain to Mr. Hoover and the Volunteer Fire Department or its separate support organization.
The release Thursday from the Town of Bar Nunn is below:
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