Officer Jodi Royer Arrested for Stealing Money from Evidence Room

A Reading cop is under arrest for allegedly stealing money from the Reading Police Department’s evidence room. Investigators say Jodi Royer, 47, of Sinking Springs, took over thousands of dollars of cash evidence from criminal investigations for his own personal use.

Reading Police Chief William Heim reported the suspected theft to the Berks County District Attorney’s Office on March 18th. Berks County Detectives started an investigation that led to Royer’s arrest. On March 14th, Royer was caught by his supervisor trying to replace over $2,000 of U.S. currency from a criminal case with his own money. Police knew it was not the evidence cash because the denominations of the bills were different.

Detectives conducted an audit and discovered six additional criminal cases were tampered with. In four of those cases, the money was stolen and not recovered. The total loss in those cases is $14,484. In the other cases, the stolen money was replaced by Royer.

Royer surrendered this morning and taken to the Berks County Sheriff Department’s Central Processing Center for processing and arraignment.

Royer joined the Reading Police Department in the fall of 1990 and has worked in the Evidence/Property Unit since April of 2011.