Employee fired from Indiana County car dealership tried to extort nearly $60K, police say

BURRELL TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) -- Pennsylvania State Police are investigating after they said a fired car dealership employee tried to extort nearly $60,000 from the company.

On Wednesday, state police in Indiana County were called to Tristar Auto Dealership on Route 22 in Burrell Township for a report of theft.

Troopers said they learned a terminated employee arrived for a scheduled meeting with company officials. During the meeting, he tried to extort the dealership for 13 months' worth of paychecks valued at a little over $58,000, police said. 

The terminated employee said if he didn't get the money, he would distribute a flash drive containing about 1,000 repair orders that contained sensitive customer information, police said.  

According to troopers, the 40-year-old from Brownsville, who wasn't identified in the police report, indicated he removed the thumb drive from the TriStar dealership in Connellsville.

Police said their investigation is ongoing. No other details were released.