Detectives from the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office are investigating allegations of missing money from the McKeesport Police Department evidence room.

Mayor Michael Cherepko and District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.’s office Wednesday confirmed the probe.

“The circumstances in question pertain to an ongoing investigation and potential personnel matters, which limits my legal ability to comment,” Cherepko said.

Officials believe the missing money amounts to several thousand dollars, said Jennifer Vertullo, a spokeswoman for the mayor. She declined to be more precise.

Police evidence rooms are used to store seized property, stolen merchandise and items from crime scenes that can include drugs, weapons and cash, which are safeguarded for use in court.

Indications that something unusual was occurring in the evidence room surfaced last month when members of the Allegheny County Police Department undertook a review of the space inside McKeesport’s public safety building.

“The county has been here all day,” Vertullo told TribLive on Sept. 10.

She indicated that the review was not linked to any suspicion of a crime and was more clerical in nature.

Vertullo said then the person in charge of the evidence room had changed, and the department asked county police for help in updating how they inventory evidence.

“We are looking at a somewhat antiquated paper-based system that has been used to catalog evidence,” Vertullo said. “With a change in the custodian of that evidence, we want to be certain that everything is organized and accounted for while looking into opportunities for a modern or digitized system.”

Vertullo concluded by saying that McKeesport was equipped to handle an upgrade “based on today’s recommendations and advice from these county experts.”

Two days later, Vertullo said county police did not identify any problems in its analysis.

“Their only recommendation is digitizing the system,” she said then.

By this month, things had changed.

Vertullo said Wednesday that as the department started following the county police recommendations, discrepancies were discovered.

She would not describe the discrepancies, but they prompted McKeesport police Chief Mark Steele to launch an internal investigation.

After the irregularities were discovered, Mayor Cherepko said the findings were referred to the district attorney’s office.

On Wednesday, the DA’s office issued a statement that said: “The McKeesport Police Department detected potential issues with their evidence room and contacted our office. We have assigned detectives to assist in the review and cannot comment any further until a thorough review has been completed.”

County police Superintendent Chris Kearns said Wednesday his department is not involved in the current investigation.

McKeesport City Council President Richard Dellapenna said he couldn’t comment on the situation.

“I’m not even exactly sure what’s going on,” he told TribLive. “We haven’t been filled in on anything.”

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