Pastor's wife accused of stealing thousands from church by ordering Amazon packages

CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla. — A pastor's wife and employee of a Crystal River church is being accused of stealing thousands from church by ordering unauthorized Amazon packages.

The Citrus County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) stated deputies first received a complaint about Nancy Mitchell Bertine, on Feb. 5 from a fellow employee at Gulf to Lake Baptist Church. According to the complaint, the church's financial department discovered that numerous fraudulent transactions had been made on their Amazon account by Bertine.

The finance department said when they further investigated the incident, they discovered the account belonging to Bertine was open and readily accessible on the church's desktop computer. The account showed records of online purchases made by the suspect, along with orders placed and shipped to Bertine, totaling around $37,000, according to CCSO.

Deputies stated the fellow employee was able to access records of Amazon purchases dating back to 2020. They then issued a subpoena to request the rest of the records.

The Amazon account in question fell under the company credit card assigned to the church, and was originally set up under the director of finance. A further investigation revealed that pastors, associate pastors and other credible staff members, including Bertine, were issued company cards associated with the church's bank account.

Bertine's husband, the church's pastor, advised once news broke to the church about them getting a divorce that Bertine left the church and no longer had employment with Gulf to Lake Baptist Church, according to CCSO.

Although Bertine was an authorized user of the account, deputies said it's meant to be used for the church's functions, needs, necessities, or other board member-approved purchases. Bertine's purchases were considered outside of the scope, needs and necessities of the church, and were not approved by the board members. According to the report, they included cosmetics, women's undergarments and pet food.

Deputies said Bertine was arrested. She faces charges of scheme to defraud $50,000 or more and grand theft.