Credit Union Thief Gets 8 Months

⏱ 3 min read

Nicole Hilstolsky, 48, of Swoyersville, Pennsylvania, is headed to federal prison after admitting she cooked up a fake robbery to cover her tracks. Hilstolsky was sentenced today to eight months behind bars for pilfering $16,247 from the WOD Federal Credit Union back on October 15, 2018. The now-defunct credit union was her target, and a lie was her escape plan – until it wasn’t.

Instead of facing the music for simply stealing the money from the teller drawer and safe, Hilstolsky dialed 911, spinning a yarn about armed robbers. She fed the story to responding Forty Fort police, hoping to throw investigators off her scent. But she didn’t stop there. She hid the cash *inside* the credit union for days, waiting for a chance to make it disappear for good.

The scheme unraveled, and Hilstolsky pleaded guilty in December 2023 to theft by a credit union employee. Senior U.S. District Judge Robert D. Mariani handed down the eight-month sentence, followed by two years of supervised release. It’s a small price to pay for a bold-faced lie and a brazen theft.

The FBI took the lead on the investigation, working alongside the Forty Fort Police Department to untangle Hilstolsky’s web of deceit. Assistant U.S. Attorney James M. Buchanan handled the prosecution, securing the conviction and sentence.