Lunch ladies accused of stealing kids' lunch money — half a million dollars of it

Two women who worked as lunch ladies in a Connecticut school district were arrested and charged with stealing $500,000 of the kids' lunch money.

Allegedly larcenous lunch ladies

Sisters 61-year-old Joanne Pascarelli and 67-year-old Marie Wilson are charged by law enforcement officials with siphoning money over five years from students paying for their lunches.

Authorities say they might have been operating the scam for as many as 15 years, but only charged them with stealing money from 2012 to 2017.

School officials discovered the alleged robbery when a new software program was installed to keep track of lunch money deposits. It revealed that the deposits were much higher than the average before the software was employed.

“We are deeply upset by this alleged violation of our trust of the entire community," said Superintendent of Schools Bryan Luizzi, "and are committed to continuing our full cooperation with the New Canaan Police Department regarding these allegations."

Pascarelli and Wilson denied that they had stolen any money.

The sisters turned themselves in to New Canaan police when an arrest warrant was issued, and they were released on a $50,000 bond.

Here's a local news story about the allegedly larcenous lunch ladies: