FARMINGTON, Mo. • When Dow Boyer was caught skimming money from the restaurant where she worked as general manager, her crime led to a chain of events that has left the wife and mother battling to stay in the country.

Boyer was convicted in December of stealing proceeds from vending machines and daily deposits at CiCi's Pizza in Farmington. She did this in part to pay bills after her husband damaged both his legs in a work accident and required 12 surgeries, The Daily Journal in Park Hills reports. She was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to repay nearly $51,000.

"I wanted to make things right and I have been working hard to do that. I know what I did was wrong," Boyer said.

But the arrest had far-reaching implications for Boyer, who did not know she wasn't a citizen. Boyer arrived in the United States at a young age after her mother married a military man she met in Thailand.

Now, Boyer is being held at the Lincoln County Jail in Troy, Mo., awaiting deportation. She said she hasn't been to Thailand since she was 10 and doesn't speak the language.

Immigration officials declined comment. Her husband said deportation could occur within a month.