Arrest In St. Mary Theft And Forgery Case

There are ten of thousands of small businesses throughout the eight parishes of Acadiana, and each of those businesses likely, in one way or another, has been impacted by the economic strife that has been caused by the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic. For those people that own and run a small business, they have to be able to trust the people that are working for their company. That was apparently not the case at one small business in St. Mary Parish.

Officials with St. Mary Parish Sheriff Blaise Smith has announced, via press release from Spokesman Public Information Officer David Spencer that a Napoleonville woman was arrested yesterday after allegations were made that she stole close to half a million dollars from a business in Amelia.

Around a month ago, a business owner called the St. Mary Parish Sheriff's Office to file a complaint that someone had stolen $474,105 from the business.

Detectives with the Sheriff's Office starting investigating, and yesterday morning they arrested 64-year-old Ava Hirstiuf on a charge of Forgery and a charge of Theft.

As far as all the details about how the money was stolen, Spencer did not detail that portion of the investigation in the press release.

What we do know is that yesterday morning officials located Hirstiuf was located, and officials then took the woman into custody.

Hirstuif was subsequently booked into the St. Mary Parish Correctional Center on the above charges.

As of this posting, no bail has been set yet in connection to this case.