Donald Elwood Corbin, age 53 of California, MD
On September 1, 2022, the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office and members of the Emergency Services Team along with the Vice Narcotics Division assisted the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office Drug Enforcement unit with the execution of a search and seizure warrant in the 23400 block of Dahlia Court in California, MD.
Once the residence was secured by St. Mary’s County units, detectives entered the residence and a search was completed.
Upon walking into the living room of the residence, detectives observed at least 5 very large black trash bags filled with opened bingo style pull tabs/holders and along side the wall were empty boxes which once stored Bingo-style pull tabs which had been discarded into a large pile, at the top of the stairs were new unopened boxed of bingo-style tabs/holders stacked in a pile, and on a table set up in the living room was multiple sheets and ledgers indicating winning numbers from the pull tab boxes which lead detectives to believed someone within the residence may be involved in the selling of pull tabs online to generate illicit income.
Police then made contact with Atlantic Bingo Supply LLC, which is a local Bingo supplier used by many local charities and non-profits in St. Mary’s County. Upon speaking with the companies Compliance/Inventory Manager, police provided them with serial numbers of an unopened “Firetruck Derby” pull tab located within the residence where police learned they were originally purchased by Knights of St. Jerome located in Dameron, MD, which is a bona fide non profit 501 C (3) organization.
On September 7, 2022, Detectives from Calvert County met with a Sharia Natalia Buck regarding her ongoing case with the Sheriff’s Office. There, detectives learned Buck had an online Facebook group of about 200 members and 20 regular players in the group where she would hold routine sales of pull tabs. A player within the group reached out to Buck regarding a male named Donald, later identified as Donald Elwood Corbin, had contacted her to sell boxes of pull tabs.
Buck told detectives she had purchased pull tabs from him in mid-July for $2,100.00 and knows Corbin is associated with the Knights of Jerome, and has been purchasing pulls tabs from him since November of 2021.
Buck stated she had added her purchases up and she bought about $21,000 worth of Bingo pull tabs from Corbin and has made about the same amount herself in profit. Other pull tabs she has bought herself were online. Some boxes she bought from Corbin were sold to others. Buck advised Corbin gets them from where he works, St. Jeromes, who actually bought and buys the pull tabs for their non-profit events/funding.
On September 22, 2022, detectives learned of a scheduled delivery of Bingo pull tabs and related bingo supplies the following day to the Knights of St. Jerome’s Inc.
A copy of the invoice was provided to detectives showing 24 boxes of pull tabs were to be delivered.
A surveillance team setup and at 12:08 p.m., on September 23, 2022. A silver SUV was observed entering the parking lot of the Knights of Columbus. The vehicle, identified as a Isuzu Rodeo. A large black male wearing a St. Mary’s County Public Schools Department of Safety & Security polo shirt got out of the vehicle and entered the building with keys he had on his possession.
The man was identified through his Maryland ID as Donald Corbin age 53 of California, MD. Corbin was then observed stealing 15 to 16 boxes of pull tabs by removing them from the kitchen where the new order was placed, or from a storage shed.
Corbin placed the tabs into the vehicle and left after securing the shed and building.
On September 29, 2022, police met with Corbin at the St. Mary’s County Board of Education building in Leonardtown, MD, where he was read his rights and placed into custody.
Corbin agreed to speak with detectives without an attorney and stated he has been working with (Volunteering for) the Knights of St. Jerome for 5 or 6 years ago and was instrumental in starting Bingo for them. Corbin advised he is a Bingo caller and also in charge of the ordering and inventory of the Bingo Pull tabs sold at the Bingo events.
Corbin then admitted stealing/skimming boxes of pull tabs for himself for about 1-2 years ago. When asked who he sold the boxes to, he stated Sharia Buck and a woman named Paula from Washington D.C. Corbin stated both women knew he worked for Knight of Jerome and knew “I had access to them the back door way”.
Corbin stated he knew Buck from playing Bingo at other places in St. Mary’s County. When asked how many boxes he sold to Paula, Corbin stated 40 to 50 boxes, and when asked how many he sold to Buck, he stated about 150 boxes of more to her.
When asked about the theft the previous Friday, September 22nd, Corbin replied “15 boxes” and stated he sold them to Paula for $2,000.00
Corbin met a female named Ivy who game him cash for the boxes who in turn would get them to Paula. When asked, Corbin admitted he has made $10,000 to $20,000 selling boxes of stolen pull tabs over the last couple of years. When asked if anyone else was involved, Corbin stated “Just me, I didn’t share the money with anyone else”. and stated he likes to gamble, play slots at the Rod and Reel, lottery and play bingo. Corbin stated it was an easy way to make money and advised he wasn’t addicted to gambling, he just enjoyed it and could stop at anytime he wanted to.
Corbin openly admitted to stealing hundreds of boxes of pull tabs in about two year period or more. The greatest loss was Knights of St. Jerome, and 501 C 3 Charity and federally registered non-profit organization. Not only did they purchase the boxes of the stolen pull tabs, they also lost the potential profit each box of tabs would have generated if sold at their events.
The Treasurer of Knights at St. Jeromes met with detectives on October 10, 2022 to review results of the pull tab inventory.
The results lists the boxes of missing pull tabs which never it into any Bingo event held at Knights of St. Jerome, and further totals the actual cost missing pull tabs, and the loss of profit each box, if not stolen, would have generated for the Knights of St. Jerome.
Although Corbin admitted to stealing boxes since 2020, records show missing boxes of pull tabs began in 2017 and progressively increased through the years into 2022. Detectives learned Corbin was involved with bingo from in inception in 2017 and the only fund raising mechanism for the Knights of St. Jerome.
Total missing boxes was calculated to 442 boxes of pull tabs at a cost of $30,481.65., with a total loss of the 442 missing boxes being $215,065.00
