Police look for missing Duluth blues festival cash

Duluth police are seeking the public’s help in determining how $26,000 apparently went missing from the Bayfront Blues Festival in August.

Sgt. Chad Nagorski of the Property and Financial Crimes Unit said the incident wasn’t made public sooner because it’s been a complicated investigation and police didn’t want to compromise it. Police have been attempting to interview people of interest in the case.

Nagorski said police received a call from bluesfest organizer Chris Mackey on Sept. 6 reporting that an audit revealed that a deposit bag containing $26,000 was found not to have been deposited on Aug. 14.

According to the police report of the incident, Mackey said his CPA was doing end-of-the-month calculations in August and discovered that one of the 40 deposits believed made for bluesfest was missing. Mackey checked with the bank and they couldn’t find any mistakes on their end. He told police that the deposit bag would have contained mostly $20 bills.

The police report indicated that Mackey provided police a list of people who were in the room when the deposit was dropped off before it was to be taken to the bank.

Mackey couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.

Nagorski said the investigation is ongoing. Police ask anyone with information to call investigator Kristina Schulte at (218) 730-5717 or investigator Tom Maida at (218) 730-5502.

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