Kansas City, Mo ? A Salvation Army bell ringer has been charged with stealing donations and using some of the proceeds to buy a lottery ticket.

Stephanie Beavers, 36, of Kansas City, was arrested Thursday night after a woman told police she had seen Beavers put a dollar into her pocket after receiving it as a donation.

The woman said she became suspicious after seeing Beavers pocket her contribution, so she wrote “Candyman” on one dollar bill and “Gotcha” on another. Then she had her brother give them to the bell ringer, police said.

The woman and her brother said they watched the bell ringer use one of the dollars to buy a lottery ticket from a machine, so they called police.

Officials from the drug store opened the lottery machine and found a dollar with “Candyman” written on it. Police found another bill with “Gotcha” written on it among the bell ringer’s personal money.

Beavers was charged with a municipal count of stealing.

A spokeswoman for the Salvation Army said this was the first year Beavers was a bell ringer, and other officials said they have safeguards to secure donations.

“Kettles have locks on them and bell ringers do not have keys to kettles,” said Lt. Col. Theodore Dalberg of the Salvation Army Kansas/Western Missouri Division. “In order to secure your donation, we ask the public to put the money directly into the kettle and not hand it to someone at the kettle site.”

He says workers check whether kettles are secured, and the organization also tracks donations at each site and investigates any large discrepancies.