NFL superstar Chris Jones volunteered to cover the loss of $1.5 million worth of chicken wings a school worker stole so she be released from prison.
Vera Liddell, a 68-year-old suburban Chicago school official, pleaded guilty to stealing a mountainous supply of chicken wings meant for students. She was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Jones, the most dominant defensive lineman in the NFL and a Super Bowl winner, just inked a colossal five-year, $158.75 million deal with the Kansas City Chiefs back in March 2024. Therefore, $1.5 million amounts to pocket change for him.
The towering gridiron star told his 300,000 X followers, “I’ll pay for the wings that she stole to get her free.”
According to WGN and the Chicago Tribune, Liddell was the food service director for Harvey School District 152. Beginning in July 2020, she picked up and delivered more than 11,000 cases of chicken wings in her personal cargo van for nearly two years.
The intended beneficiaries were children forced to learn remotely because of the coronavirus. Parents were encouraged to pick up the food at their discretion.
Liddell reappropriated the food for her own personal use.
Upon learning that Jones offered to pay for the food so Liddell would not languish in prison, many folks on X told him to appropriate his energies and resources elsewhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh68u8WfgvoOne perturbed X user wrote, “She robbed the community. It is not about the cash it is about what she did. This is not ‘nice old lady steals wings because she was hungry.’ This is ‘thief steals and creates a criminal enterprise selling the stolen items.’”
A second X respondent found Liddell an unsympathetic criminal: “Nah, man. She stole from taxpayers who work hard. She needs to go down.”
Others, however, found the punishment draconian and out of proportion to the crime that was committed.
“She was hungry and fed her family and they wanna give her 9 years,” one person raged. “But let rapists run around the streets getting probation and s—. Our justice system is wild! Free The Wing Queen.”
