City of Pittsburgh employee charged with scamming neighbor out of over $22K

PITTSBURGH — A woman was scammed out of over $22,000 and police say a City of Pittsburgh employee is responsible.

“He’s a slime ball. That’s dirty. He’s a scoundrel.”

Jerome Ward is talking about Timothy Terlecki, a handyman who is now facing charges after investigators say he was stealing from one of his clients, who lives in Hazelwood.

Ward lives nearby, and he recognized Terlecki from working at the victim’s home.

“I even offered him my tools. I thought he was an alright stand-up guy, but he’s a slime ball,” Ward added.

According to investigators, Terlecki started working on the victim’s home in January and asked her to pay him via Venmo. She told him she was “computer illiterate,” so he set up the account.

Court documents say that over the course of the summer, he stole $22,800 by Venmoing money to himself from her account.

The victim told police that due to her mother’s illness and passing, she wasn’t paying appropriate attention to her accounts, but started to receive overdraft notices from PNC Bank.

The victim also told investigators that Terlecki told her he was trying to get a job with the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure with the City of Pittsburgh.

Sources confirmed to Channel 11 that he does, in fact, work for the city.

We have reached out to the city officials to find out if he’s still employed. So far, we have not heard back.

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