Pool Manager Charged Over Stolen Equipment Sold on eBay

A former New Jersey pool company manager has been charged with theft after allegedly selling company equipment through an unauthorized eBay account and keeping more than $14,000 in proceeds, according to police allegations reported by Newport Dispatch.

Jessica Szurick, 42, of Clifton, was charged Oct. 27 with theft by unlawful taking following an investigation involving Preferred Pool Management Inc. in Fairfield. The company’s owner contacted police Aug. 27 to report the alleged unauthorized sales.

Investigators said industrial machinery and pool equipment had been sold through the account. Financial records obtained through court-authorized subpoenas allegedly showed approximately $14,253 from three transactions deposited into a bank account registered to Szurick rather than the business. The owner also reported unauthorized company credit card purchases, which were reviewed during the investigation.

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According to Daily Voice, Szurick’s LinkedIn profile listed employment with Preferred Pool Management from May 2018 through July 2026, most recently as a senior regional manager. The profile described responsibility for 161 commercial aquatic facilities and approximately 315 seasonal employees.

Szurick was issued a complaint-summons and is scheduled to appear in Essex County Superior Court on Dec. 9. The charge remains an allegation, and she is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

Tracking Equipment and Sales Proceeds

The available reporting does not explain the alleged motive or establish which safeguards Preferred Pool Management had in place. But the alleged transactions illustrate a vulnerability other pool companies can examine: equipment leaving the business without the corresponding revenue reaching its bank account.

Pool Magazine recently explored pool equipment theft and its costly consequences for homeowners. Inside a pool business, protecting those assets requires more than locks and cameras. Employees need access to equipment to do their jobs, and owners need records that account for what happens afterward.

The Cost of Earning That Money Back

For a pool company, an equipment loss can create expenses beyond the item itself. Depending on what disappears, the business may face an urgent replacement purchase, a delayed installation, another truck roll, or hours spent reconstructing records. The reporting does not establish whether those disruptions occurred in this case.

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Even the direct loss can take considerable work to recover. At a hypothetical 10% profit margin, a company would need $100,000 in additional sales to generate $10,000 in profit—the amount needed to offset a $10,000 unrecovered loss. That follows OSHA’s cost-divided-by-profit-margin calculation.

The reported eBay proceeds do not establish Preferred Pool Management’s total financial loss. They put a dollar figure on the transactions investigators say they traced.

Building Accountability Into the Business

For pool companies, the challenge is giving employees the access they need while maintaining oversight of valuable assets. Managers must be able to purchase equipment, move it between locations, and keep jobs moving. Those responsibilities should come with records another person can review.

The Insurance Information Institute recommends businesses “implement tight accounting controls that include frequent audits and take steps to ensure employees are aware of these practices.” Its employee theft prevention guidance also encourages businesses to provide a way for employees to report concerns without fear of reprisal.

For a pool business, that oversight can start with equipment sales. Document the item, require authorization for its release, and have someone other than the person arranging the transaction verify that payment reached the company’s account. Equipment marked discarded or damaged should also have a documented explanation.

Broader occupational-fraud research supports the value of internal oversight. “Organizations with effective anti-fraud controls in place consistently experienced lower losses and faster fraud detection,” the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners states in its 2026 occupational fraud findings.

As a pool company adds crews, vehicles, and service locations, an owner’s ability to personally track every asset becomes harder to sustain. Equipment may move among a warehouse, several trucks, and multiple job sites before anyone considers selling or disposing of it. The records and review process need to grow with that operation.

The Fairfield allegations remain for the courts to resolve. For other owners, they present a reason to examine their own process now. Delegating responsibility keeps the business moving; independent review gives the owner confidence that equipment releases are authorized and sale proceeds reach the company. Establishing those checks during everyday operations is far easier than reconstructing the trail after something goes missing