TOLEDO — A YouTube TV shutoff exposed missing money in the house fund at Toledo Fire & Rescue Department Station No. 4, and the captain who discovered the shortfall testified Monday in the trial of the firefighter accused of taking it.

Capt. Scott Thornburg told a Lucas County Common Pleas Court jury that before leaving on a family vacation last winter, he checked the Station No. 4 house fund balance to make sure there was enough money to cover the cable and YouTube TV bills while he was away.

On his first day out, he got a phone call from the firehouse asking why YouTube TV had been shut off. “I knew exactly how much money was in that account,” Thornburg testified, according to The Blade.

Thornburg said he paid the bill himself, then reviewed the account statement when he returned and found numerous suspicious transactions by DeAndre Ware Jr., 38, a Toledo firefighter described in court as a professional boxer among the department’s ranks.

Ware is charged with fifth-degree theft and fourth-degree telecommunications fraud. Prosecutors say the house fund ended up $1,342.19 short, even after Ware repaid some of the money.

Assistant Lucas County Prosecutor Angela Zavac told jurors Ware violated his fellow firefighters’ trust and used some of the money to buy cryptocurrency through a cell phone app.

Lt. Tyler Trease, a shift officer at Station No. 4, testified that Ware was the only firefighter to volunteer in mid-2025 to fill in as house fund manager while Trease was on military deployment. All firefighters knew personal use of the house fund was forbidden, Trease said.

Paula DelBrocco, controller and office manager for the Toledo Firefighters’ Federal Credit Union, told the court that on July 23, 2025 — the day Ware was added as an account signatory — he withdrew $500. Activity increased in October, including Venmo transfers and debit-card purchases of cryptocurrency, according to records shown to the jury.

In a police interview played in court, Ware admitted using house fund money to pay personal bills, but denied criminal intent. “I don’t look at myself as stealing anything because I didn’t. I borrowed,” he told Detective Matthew Kozlaker.

Thornburg testified he told Ware he was no longer to play any role in managing the house fund, but did not get the debit card back, and the transactions continued for another month. Thornburg said Ware paid him $700 in cash after being confronted, which was entered in a ledger for the firehouse’s petty cash fund.

Prosecutors rested their case Monday after testimony from Kozlaker. Defense attorney Martin McManus said Ware will testify in his own defense Tuesday morning.

The trial continues Tuesday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.

For more on Toledo Fire & Rescue, read our earlier report: Toledo Fire Deputy Chief on Paid Leave After Two Harassment Investigations Were Substantiated.

Source: The Blade via NewsLocker

Photo: A historic 1895 photograph of Toledo Fire Station No. 6 — not Station No. 4, the firehouse at the center of this case. Credit: Toledo-Lucas County Public Library via DPLA, public domain.