A Jacksonville man is facing a felony grand theft charge after investigators say he wrote more than 120 checks to himself while serving as treasurer of the Atlantic Beach Athletic Association. <\/p>\n
Daniel Crews, 43, was arrested July 30 and booked into the Duval County jail on a single count of grand theft, a second-degree felony. He was released on a $10,000 bond.<\/p>\n
Audit uncovers missing funds, according to report<\/p>\n
According to Crews\u2019 arrest report, the case began July 3, when officers responded to the Atlantic Beach Police Department for a fraud and embezzlement investigation involving the Atlantic Beach Athletic Association. <\/p>\n
Board members told investigators that the association\u2019s new treasurer discovered a financial deficit of approximately $108,000 after taking over the position in November 2025, following Crews\u2019 removal. After further review, investigators determined $38,751.67 of that total was accounted for, leaving $9,248.24 still unaccounted for, according to the report. <\/p>\n
Crews served as the ABAA treasurer from 2023 to 2025.<\/p>\n
More than 120 checks written to himself, police say<\/p>\n
Investigators say over 121 checks were made payable to Crews \u2014 most labeled as \u201creimbursements\u201d \u2014 totaling $60,076. An additional $9,172.24 in checks were made payable to \u201cTeamSnap,\u201d a travel baseball payment platform.<\/p>\n
According to the report, Crews admitted to using association funds to pay for TeamSnap. He also told board members the $60,076 in checks represented out-of-pocket expenses he was reimbursing himself for.<\/p>\n
Board members disputed that explanation, saying that under ABAA guidelines, all reimbursements must be approved by the board \u2014 and not a single board member was notified about any of the 121 checks, according to the report. <\/p>\n
No receipts<\/p>\n
Investigators say the ABAA retained an attorney to obtain records and recover funds from Crews. The attorney\u2019s office sent a letter requesting reimbursement documentation and set a deadline of June 8. As of the date of the arrest, Crews had not responded.<\/p>\n
A board member told investigators in a July 14 meeting that he had reached out to Crews multiple times with no response. He said Crews told him supporting receipts were stored in the concession stand \u2014 but when investigators checked, no receipts were found.<\/p>\n
The board member also explained that the association\u2019s normal practice was to request checks made directly payable to vendors, not to individual members like Crews.<\/p>\n
Bank records raise more questions<\/p>\n
On July 22, investigators received records from Community First Credit Union in response to a subpoena. The records showed deposits in Crews\u2019 account that corresponded with the dates and amounts of checks he had written to himself.<\/p>\n
Investigators say they identified 16 checks \u2014 ranging from $175 to $1,650 \u2014 that could not be located in the joint account held by Crews and his wife. Those checks totaled several thousand dollars in potentially unaccounted-for funds, according to the report. <\/p>\n
A review of Crews\u2019 bank statements from July 2024 to November 2025 also showed no significant purchases at sporting goods stores. Investigators noted that following a $1,850 deposit in July 2023, Crews spent more than $1,400 while traveling to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and made additional withdrawals in Arizona, Georgia and South Carolina, according to the report. <\/p>\n
Of 120 checks made out to himself, investigators say they could not identify any purchases consistent with baseball equipment or field maintenance. In total, investigators traced $58,725 in checks written by Crews to himself \u2014 $48,280 deposited into his Community First account, with an additional $10,445 unaccounted for.<\/p>\n
Arrest warrant issued<\/p>\n
After multiple attempts to contact Crews went unanswered \u2014 investigators sought an arrest warrant. <\/p>\n
Crews\u2019 next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 20.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Jacksonville man is facing a felony grand theft charge after investigators say he wrote more than 120…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[692,3912,116,118,117],"class_list":["post-359247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-arrest","tag-atlantic-beach","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}