Topeka ? A Fort Riley woman must pay $35,000 in restitution and serve eight years’ probation for stealing from an Army sergeant friend who was deployed to Iraq.

Rachel Lindsey Hendry, 26, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Court Judge Sam Crow. As part of her probation, she was given six months of home detention with electronic monitoring.

U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren said if Hendry misses a single monthly payment of not less than $400, she will have to serve 24 months in federal prison.

Melgren called Hendry’s conduct “reprehensible.”

Hendry pleaded guilty in April to two theft charges and a charge of making unauthorized use of a bank card.

According to the news release, she agreed in September 2003 to look after the sergeant’s daughter while the woman was deployed to Iraq. The sergeant and Hendry agreed that Hendry would open her home to the daughter, who is in high school, and receive no pay for the care.

But during the sergeant’s deployment from Sept. 3, 2003, to Sept. 25, 2004, Hendry:

¢ Stole $18,313 by writing unauthorized checks and using the sergeant’s debit card.

¢ Used the sergeant’s car without asking, had an accident and paid for repairs with the sergeant’s money.

¢ Lived in the sergeant’s house while telling the sergeant that she was living in her own house.

¢ Stole the sergeant’s ATM/debit card when it arrived in the mail and used it while representing herself as the sergeant.