Eight years ago, auditors who suspected parking-fee theft persuaded the Orange County Convention Center to install surveillance cameras at its parking booths. Last year, that additional security helped nab an attendant accused of directing drivers’ credit card transactions into her own bank account to the tune of more than $50,000.
But there are still a few improvements to be made in the system, county auditors concluded in a new report.
For one, a lot attendant implicated and fired after the original investigation was rehired in 2024, and she was the one who allegedly commandeered parking payments for several months until her arrest.
Parking fees at the massive International Drive meeting place — among the largest convention centers in the nation — are a tempting target. They amount to millions annually in public revenue: $11.3 million in fiscal year 2024 (a 12-month period ending Sept. 30, 2024) and $9.1 million in fiscal year 2023.
The convention center boasts 6,600 on-site parking spaces. It charges $20 plus tax ($21.30) per standard-sized vehicle and $40 plus tax ($42.60) for oversized vehicles, according to its website, which notes that fees may sometimes increase by event and availability.
“Parking is a big part of the convention center’s revenue,” said Comptroller Phil Diamond, whose examiners revisited their audit from 2017. “I know the administration wants to do the best they can to minimize any subsidies they require from Orange County government.”
The original audit had recommended the convention center adopt a cashless payment system to limit losses from handling cash. Before the follow-up audit began, examiners were informed a parking attendant had been charged with stealing thousands in fees. The audit covered the period of the alleged theft.
The theft investigation used video from the cameras which were added to parking booths after the first audit, as well as data from a system requiring attendants to log all vehicles entering a lot, whether a driver pays to park or shows complimentary or pre-paid parking.
A parking employee, 29-year-old Zillah Kaitlin Bell, was arrested in January for grand theft, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. An Orange County sheriff’s investigation alleged she had transferred cashless parking payments from hundreds of visitors totaling $57,182 to a credit union account in her name through a mobile smartphone financial app called Square.
“The theft, which occurred on nearly every shift worked by Ms. Bell, was conducted in a manner which showed a systematic, ongoing course of criminal conduct, with the sole intent of defrauding the Orange County Convention Center out of their funds,” according to a sheriff’s report.
Records show Bell worked in the parking division of the convention center from May to August 2024. Video showed Bell made a habit of taking possession of customers’ credit or debit cards to process payment inside the booth, which stood out to investigators because the general practice was for an attendant to hold the payment device outside the booth for the customer to use.
Spot checks of surveillance video, if conducted, could have uncovered thefts sooner because payment was diverted from 2,352 customers.
According to the sheriff’s report, Bell said she used $5,000 from the scheme to buy a car and other proceeds to support her children. The report alleged she spent the money at grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, and unspecified “places of entertainment.”
Bell has pleaded not guilty.
Diamond said his audit team had previously identified Bell as a parking attendant who worked in a parking booth with many unrecorded transactions eight years earlier. As a result, she was removed from the work schedule in 2016 but was then rehired in 2024.
In the original audit, examiners counted vehicles entering a convention center lot over two-hour periods, then compared their counts to transactions recorded in a point-of-sale system. The audit found about 30% of vehicles entering the lot were not recorded.
At the time, convention center managers downplayed the possibility of theft, suggesting discrepancies could be explained by attendees with free parking passes or re-entries to the lots — though signs on the parking booths advised customers of no free re-entry.
In a written response to the follow-up audit, Mark Tester, the convention center’s executive director since 2020, said his team is implementing a “revamped and technically modernized parking system” that will rely on digital ticketing and use scannable QR codes.
He said managers are looking for solutions that do not substantially increase transaction times at parking booths. Booth operators process up to five transactions per minute, and maintaining this pace is critical to prevent traffic congestion on surrounding roadways and avoid impeding emergency vehicles in the tourist corridor.
Tester noted that parking transactions exceeded 563,000 in the last fiscal year.
He added that a hiring manager asked why Bell was previously terminated before rehiring her, but Human Resources could not provide an explanation.
For more information, contact [email protected].
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/11/12/fired-once-orange-county-parking-attendant-diverted-57k-in-fees-to-her-bank-audit-shows/
