from stealing $20,000 from the cash register. I trusted you and guess what? You robbed me for over and over and over. I have You've been recorded now. Enough to stealing 11 grand in lottery tickets. It's not more like you just stole a candy bar. Okay, I guess there's a question about almost $11,000 worth of lottery tickets. 11,000. These are the times when dumb employees get caught stealing in the act. Starting with this woman who used a water bottle to steal and a law degree to justify it. On April 23rd, 2025, officers from the Boca Raton Police Department were called to a local Hollister over a reported theft. Now, employee theft isn't exactly headline news, but what the responding officers didn't realize was that by the end of the day, they'd be questioning the very laws they'd sworn to uphold. Hello. So, big picture. Um, this is Marie. She, um, has taken some merchandise over like the past year, I would say. We've got that merchandise here. She was nice enough to bring it back to us today. She never more this whole pile. Yes, sir. So it's 26 items valued at 75070 before tax. However, it is under in each separate occasion. She never took this all like this is over an extended period of time. So if you guys wanted to go about it, I understand the state law. So if you guys need to handle it a different way, I understand as well. She did write us a statement explaining like what happened and like the why she took it. But um there is other stuff she was unable to return which the company will not prosecute on that because we don't have the merch. But Gotcha. And this you found out all this today I guess or um conducting an investigation. Okay, let me just take a read this real quick and then your name is Marie. All right, I will talk to you just in a second. Are hereby trespass from all abocromian pitch properties including uh Abocroian Hollister for 2 years. If you agree to that, please just sign. All right, Marie, go ahead and just stand up for me in the meantime. I'm just going to put you in handcuffs and then just kind of explain to you what's going on. Okay. All right. So, I'm going to just read you your Miranda warnings, okay? Cuz obviously you're not free to go. And I got some questions for you. You have the right to remain silent. Do you understand everything that I've explained to you? Yes. Okay. So, I see that you've already written out a statement. Is that statement accurate? What you provided to uh your manager over here? Yes. Okay. That was a lot of stuff on that list. Did you like keep a log of everything like when you were stealing it or? No, it's just like cuz that's like a a big list of items. I know some of which like you didn't return which is fine. Yeah. Um but like it's actually like surprising that you actually remembered everything what it was cuz it's like item completely itemized. So I mean before I wrote that down, we like talked about it for a bit. I've been working here for like a year and a half at this point. Okay. So last year around like December time. Well, I guess technically 2 years ago in 2023. Okay. In August or September? August of 2023. Okay. And is that when you started stealing things from the store? When did that when was like the first thing that you um I don't remember the first. Probably something like small like tank top. And then I think it was like 2 months into me being hired here. The suspect was a young woman named Marie. And this wasn't a one-time slip. According to the store, she'd been pulling this off for a while undetected. Either she had help or she was pulling off some borderline genius level heist all on her own. As officers questioned her, Marie explained how she managed to steal items without raising suspicion. Let's just say her method was creative. It says that when you were stealing stuff, you would use like a water bottle or something. Yeah. Can you explain that? I have a like a thermal water bottle, so you can't see through it. So, I'll just like put stuff in there. You Oh, you would put it in the water bottle. How big is the water bottle? It's like a 24 oz hydro floss. It gets kind of thin. Okay. And each time uh you was it always that with that or were there other methods and how you things that or just wearing stuff under my clothes? Okay. Approximately, do you know how many items that you've 50 something? Okay. And in total value, could you estimate how much that was? We estimated it out to about um 1,500 I think. Just 1500. Do you know how many things that you returned today? Yeah, about $700 something dollars worth of stuff, but $400 something dollars worth of what they can like resell again. Okay. Why wouldn't they be to resell the other stuff? It's been worn. Oh, okay. I understand. Turns out she was using a water bottle. Yeah, a regular everyday bottle. But what really stood out wasn't the method. It was her attitude. Throughout the entire interview, Marie stayed calm, like weirdly calm. She smiled, made eye contact, and showed zero signs of panic. Not even when she revealed why she started stealing in the first place. Just kind of going through your statement here. So, items like black leggings, bikini tops, white bikinis, swimwear. Is there any particular reason why you were stealing all these things? To not have to pay for them. Some things were for friends. Okay. The stuff that you weren't able to retrieve, why weren't you able to? I'm here for college, but my hometown is Orlando. So, that's like it's just at my house. So, the remainder of the items that aren't here today that you returned are like at your house. And how did they find out? And then did they call you in today? Today, so I just came in. And what did they tell you today? loss prevention. What did they talk to you about today? Was this your first time hearing about this or? Yeah. Okay. And what did they say to you today? They just told me to sit down and we started talking about loss prevention and that they know I've been stealing. And then I And this statement that you wrote was voluntarily on your own. I mean, it was guided, but it's all true. And like when you say guided, what do you mean? Like he asked me questions kind of in like a template format like, okay, the first thing you want to write is your name. Oh, so just kind of explaining how like the statement goes. Yeah. Okay. Okay. But everything that you wrote done voluntarily, correct? Peter Ellie. All right. You have anything else that you want to add to the statement or anything that you think is important for later on? I know it says in here that you're apologetic and stuff, but unfortunately they do want to prosecute. So, we do have to go through that process. Um, I'll kind of explain to you where we go from here afterwards, but um being that it's a little over $700, $750. Unfortunately, you'll probably have to go take the ride today. Okay. on 3:24 received an anonymous tip from the ethics hotline that stock associate Maria Belace might be committing merchandise the death of following the details from the call. Since March 2024, Maria has been stealing clothes that fit in a water bottle at the Hollister store that located this store. Over the last year, Mary has around 500. No one at the store knows about this situation. That's all we had. Okay. Is that something I can get a copy of? You can um if you want this this case report that we have right here. Mhm. You can take it. Eventually, the officers informed her that she'd be going to jail, but they'd have to wait for a female officer to arrive for a proper search. In the meantime, one of the officers stuck around and chatted with her. And by the end of it, he was nearly speechless. You said you're in school. What school? Atlantic University. What are you studying? Criminal justice. What are you trying to do? Law enforcement or lawyer or Um, right now I'm thinking maybe like something with domestic. Okay. Look, this this ain't the end of the world, right? So, you're being charged with it, right? You go through the court process. You go through the whole ordeal. You might be able to get this corrected depending what the judge sees. And obviously, you're a student and stuff. Just take this as a a life lesson learned, right? You seem like a great kid. You made some bad decisions and you're in this position now, right? You have nobody else but to blame but yourself. Unfortunately, sometimes when it seems too good to be true, like I'm sure the first few items were like, "Oh, wow. It's easy, right? It kept on going. There's a reason why people get caught. There's a reason why there's police officers. People get caught all the time because it it goes on forever. But this is not bad because there's other people that steal more valuable things and they're probably looking at a little bit longer, you know, sentences and things like that because they do it so so often. They get caught so often. Again, you seem like a great kid. You just made a stupid decision, you know, and hopefully this ends here. You know, I'm sure your parents are going to be pissed and you're 21. You don't have to tell them, but you know, you're getting arrested. You're probably going to need a lawyer and stuff, you know, when you go to court. You going to tell your parents? Yeah. do I like get an opportunity to use my phone at any point? Not now, but probably when you get up to county jail, you'll be able to make a phone call. And then depending on how this off officer is, you can request a phone call. We don't have to give you a phone call, but again, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't get a phone call. All right. You've been cooperative. You're not, you know, give us a hard time. Again, we're just doing our jobs end of the day. So, I don't see why not. And what was the last time you stole something? Yesterday. Yeah. And before that, it was like a while. Okay. And obviously it's what's done is done, but like what made you think it was a good idea? Just, oh, I could save the money and then not getting caught after the first couple of times. I'm like, oh, I could like really save money through. No, I get it. It's opportunity, right? You see the opportunity and you get away with it for a few times and probably a lot of times and just caught up. And a lot of this stuff is for yourself and I'm sure you got stuff for your friends and family and stuff as gifts. But again, it's hopefully this is the last time. You want to do me a favor? Just standing up face that way. You have a idea that's going to focus sleeping on me. Just sit down. Take these shoes off. Same way we came in. Turns out she wasn't your average retail worker. She was a law student. Let that sink in. Marie may have been passionate about criminal law, but she took hands-on learning way too literally. Marie was searched and transported to jail where she was charged with grand theft and organized fraud under $20,000. This next woman turned a Wind Dixie into her own personal casino and still managed to lose. It's not more like you just stole a candy bar. Okay, I guess there's a question about almost $11,000 worth of lottery tickets over. On July 2nd, 2023, Florida police were alerted to a case of internal theft at a local Wind Dixie. But this wasn't just about an employee pocketing a few bills from the till. This was someone treating the lottery system like their own personal ATM. All right. So, what's happening is we have an associate. Okay. We've started seeing some lottery shortage here. For instance, ticketing online. It started back around beginning of July and it's gone on till present. So since July has been selecting lottery cards, lottery cards playing online ticket. You want to go back in there for real quick? Can you tell me what's going on? I can try to I don't know what's going on so I can That's cuz I don't want my kids to be stuck out the door and I know. Well, we don't I don't know what's going on yet. So, let me talk to him and we'll go from there. So, I have her on video collecting tickets mainly at the liquor store. She would just scratch the bottom to see if they're winner or not, discard them if they weren't, cash them if they were. And there's also another process on the cash register to where like somebody brings up a winning ticket, we can key in instant lottery redemption and then put in the dollar amount and then we pay that out. Well, she figured out that she could do that even without a winning ticket and everything's still balanced on the back end in our world. But then when we got the bill from lottery, then obviously we were like, okay, well, we paid out more redemptions than what we received. And so that's when all this started. Um, so we're looking at total that I can prove that she took was $10,653, something like that. on video. Every incident on video, I got it all on a thumb drive for you. Everything that sent on video, I've got the our report that shows our redemptions on our register and then the all of the redemptions on Florida Lottery terminals. Since we don't own that, I have to get that and that shows everything of what ticket she scan, what the value is on an Excel spreadsheet. So, that's how I log in for her information. Doesn't matter. The machine is a machine, anybody. The machine's a machine. Anybody can do it, but it's her scheduled shift. Uh, and obviously on video she's the only one at the liquor store cuz we usually only work with one person's liquor store. Okay. So, she's basically taking lottery tickets scanning them. So, don't they have to be activated? They're all active because they're all, you know, for gameplay. While one officer spoke with a Florida lottery rep, he spotted a woman nearby casually carrying her belongings and making a quiet attempt to slip out the door. You said, I don't know what's going on for I won't tell you. We're trying to figure that out. I'm trying to figure out what I have. Okay. I'm going to figure out if we're taking a jail or not taking it to jail. Well, I need to know cuz I will let you know. Once I know, I will let you know. Okay. So, can you sit down for me? If I lose my kids, I have a seven and a child is in school right now having asthma. So, let them figure out what's going on. Take a seat for me. They'll figure it out. You know, they'll let you So, I just can't just go home. No. because the allegations I guess we have going on against going to investigate this. Okay. Well, now that they did their investigation now they could tell us what they have going on. Say you had to talk to somebody else to finish going on. Well, they're providing us a verbal statement what's been going on since July. Okay. So, it's not more like you just stole a candy bar. Okay. I guess there's a question about almost $11,000 worth of lottery tickets over. Okay. So, yes, we're going to You want to You want that back or She's right. Like we do instant auto redemption as a hand keep and then they put $30, we give you 30 bucks. Well, everything balances in our world until the state, which we only get quarterly. The state send us a bill that says, "Hey, we overpaid the redemption because she figured out that she could just do that instant lottery redemption for no ticket and get the ticket whatever money she wanted out." Correct. Or not having a ticket. Not even having a ticket. She just goes up to purchase and goes in lottery redemptions. $100. Okay. $100 scanner ticket. Correct. You can just computerize. Correct. In my 15 years here, I've never had somebody figure that part out that they could just do it without actually. So, obviously something on our back end that might need to be addressed. But yeah, meet our suspect. She wasn't just working the lottery machine. She was bending the rules to her will. She scanned the real winning tickets, cashed them out, and then resold the now worthless ticket to an unsuspecting customer. She tried to leave the situation the same way she took the money. Smooth and unnoticed. But this wasn't Monopoly, and it definitely wasn't a game. You okay? Oh [ __ ] Scared the hell out of me. I just been out here. I just saw that she got up over there and you moved back. because you jump cuz she told me to make a phone call. So, I'm trying to think of who can I call to get the kids in the school. Her children are about to get out of school. So, she was But I do need to stay. So, while we're doing figuring out stuff out here so you can figure out what's going on. So, can you ask the state that he was just talking to me about this too much? I will gladly ask you. Don't worry about that. But I'm telling you right now, I'm going to be talking with them. We're going to figure out what we have going on. You have until by the time we come in here and talk to you about what's going on to figure out a ride for your family, for your kids and stuff. There's a possibility. Why? Because apparently you stole almost $11,000 and like the Cory and Charles that run this store, they had a conversation with me and they woke me up for But let me, like I said, let me figure out what they have over here. Just get somebody to see if they can pick your kids up just in case if you do happen to go to jail. That's the thing. I'm trying to think who can I call. My family don't stay here. They say it's Georgia. Okay. Well, you need to figure out a family friend or somebody or else I can call my friends at Child Services. So, can I call y'all um one of the police officers that used to work with you guys? used to or does. I don't know. I don't know. I didn't tell you about the meeting we had. Hang on. See, now he don't want to say nothing cuz he's talking with us. I told you he just can't interrupt. We're talking now. So, figure out what you're doing. Figure out somebody with your kids. Okay. When officers stopped her and explained what was happening, her face said it all. She was caught and there was no way to talk her way out. In custody, she admitted the money went towards basics. Groceries, baby supplies, the usual. But the law doesn't work on sympathy. Intentions don't erase felony charges. I know your your last name is Bird. What was your first name again? Ma'am, you can read my Miranda right? I didn't say that. In order for me to speak to you, okay, because you are detained, I have to read you your Miranda warnings. Somebody said you're going to jail, but I have to read these to you. Okay? Do you understand your rights? You willing to speak to me? Go ahead. Is that a yes? No. Okay. This is what's happening. Okay. You're going to take a ride to jail. So, sit down. Who do you need to call? I don't have nobody to go get my kids. So, come on. Say you catch me. Hang tight. We have some some things that need to be handled over here. So, have a seat. Okay. What will be the charge? Grand theft and scheme of a fraud. As of now, one count of grand theft and scheme of the fraud. But there's going to be more counts of grand theft coming down the road once they can go through everything and and atomize every individual transaction. Every transaction is a theft. So, I'm going to have a felony charge. Yes, two felonies. But it's one count now, but it's going to add up. Okay. So, I won't even get no binding. Okay. I believe there is. Don't quote me on it, though. All right. So, have a seat. So, you got to arrest me inside here. Hey, just just bring that later. I don't even need it. Come on. Okay. Well, I'm trying to put your hand behind your back. You're praying right there. Stop pulling from me. Put your hand behind your back. Stop pulling. Do you understand that? I don't walk down the stairs. Doesn't matter. You're pulling from me. You don't do anything that I don't tell you to do. Do you understand that? She was sentenced to 2 years of probation, but after violating it, she ended up behind bars for 8 months. While one woman turned Wind Dixie into a jackpot scam, the next made 71 her own ATM until the receipts cashed her out. On December 2nd, 2023, deputies in Palm Beach County responded to a 7-Eleven after the store owner reported something unusual. Money had been disappearing from the register, but with no sign of theft. What they uncovered wasn't an error. It was a digital side hustle quietly running from behind the counter. Till yesterday, last night, I was I was I was short for almost $300. So I figured out and I went to my electronic general on everything that we record. So she I saw that very this is very strange. This never happens. He loads up a card for cash app and then immediately next transaction is $300 loads up and next transaction is $300 cash gas refund. So that actually raised my quiet because since the time she had joined we are having we used to be very tight. Now we are having variances like swings you know crazy. And we don't have no explanation for that. He's the manager by the way. He's helping me out with his child. It's supposed to be day off. So I got um uh so I went up there. I can pull up three last three months here. We went up there and we actually totaled up and it's the same mod of the same kind of card. I think that's that's the app she has. Okay. Every time she's on the shift, there's no customer. We pull the cameras, there's no customers, but she's scanning the card and she goes out with some kind of, you know, transaction. And the next transaction is this is Cassandra. On the surface, just another cashier working night shifts. But behind the register, she was playing a whole different game. Whenever she was alone, Cassandra used the point of sale system to process fake gas refunds. No customer, no gas, just a refund routed directly to her cash app. It looked like routine business, but it was anything but. Once the owner and deputies figured out what was going on, they came up with a plan. The next time Cassandra clocked in, she walked in like it was just another Tuesday. Problem was, the manager brought receipts and this time he wasn't alone. So, I am almost 300 short. What? What? I don't know. The owner, he was telling me that he has video footage. All right. Of you trying to do a transaction for gas, but there is no customers at the counter at on those times. So now I know I did go in like if there's money left on the thing, we take like we clear it out. We hit the before we close down, we hit the thing, we close it out, we come back to the register, we refund it, we put in a brown bag. But I don't see where I went to the gas. I don't know. Like I don't know where I went to the gas and it wasn't a customer in front of me. If that makes sense. Yeah. like you're in the cash register like doing a transaction for gas, but then you cancel it out right away, but then there's money missing. Like he was saying he was missing $300. So, like I said, I'm not sure because I didn't have no issues really too much yesterday with anything. Like I had that one incident, but not to where it had anything to do with gas or anything like that. Somebody did come in and pay um and then I made a mistake and hit cash, but I redid it to where he paid with his card and then I remember to refund it. But other than that, I don't I don't recall, you know, messing up or doing anything to where it would be $300 short. When confronted, Cassandra didn't fold. She denied everything, stalled for time, and tried to deflect, hoping confusion would buy her some breathing room. But the owner wasn't bluffing. He had video, timestamps, and a refund trail that connected directly to her phone. Still, Cassandra denied it right up until the footage started playing. The video shows you doing it. I have 15 videos shows you doing it and then next transaction you cancel the gas. So that makes more sense. I've never seen this happening. Obviously, I'm losing money every time you do that. You want me to show you the video? Yeah, you can show me the video because I have I have the videos. I have the quotes from 7-Eleven. Have 7-Eleven reported that to me, too. They're losing money left and right. Otherwise, I've never brought all these people here just to find out. it will be easier for us if you can just let me know and we'll we'll go our way. I like I said I cleared out the gas I cleared out to where um like you said we go to the thing and clear it out and come back but other than that no I didn't I didn't I didn't do anything yesterday. How about the days prior? I've um I've loaded I loaded money to cash out one time before I have. You've got to respect the confidence or the delusion. 15 separate recordings, clear as day, and she still tried to explain it away. Then came the sympathy angle. She said she needed the money. A lastditch effort to twist the situation into something softer. My question is, boys don't load up their own cash. Correct. So why are you doing it? I mean, I did it that time because I needed the money, but other than that, that was it. So, you needed the money, but you didn't put So, you didn't have the money, then you loaded up, but you never informed me, did you? No. I wish you have told you. I would have helped you out. Is it I Let me ask you one more time. Is this the only time you did or Yes, that's the only time. I'm not going to ask you again. Okay, that's fine. Is this the only time you did it? Yes, it is. Okay. I I need you to be honest with us, okay? Cuz if you're not honest, I'm going to pull all the footage and we're going to get detectives involved and it's going to You need to be honest. What were you doing in this picture? A video. The video. Why are we touching the screen? I was refunding gas and loading on cash app. I don't feel like you're being honest with me. I'm being honest. I refunded the gas. Okay. After I refunded the gas, I activated a number and I did load a cash app. You loaded a cash app? Yes. And that's for you personally? No. Why'd you load the cash app? For the money. For you personally? Yes. For your Okay. How long has that been going on for? Just that time and then the last time which was the money. So, I need you to be honest. How long has this been going on for? Just last month and then now. So, this has been going on since last month. Yes. But I haven't I only done it twice or three times. After one final attempt at damage control, deputies decided they'd heard enough. Cassandra was arrested and charged with felony grand theft. Because when you treat the refund system like your personal piggy bank, don't be shocked when the cops show up to break it open. The last woman let the receipts do all the talking, but the next one tried to talk over every receipt in the building. You did not listen. I gave you my store keys. I trusted you. And guess what? Um, you are going to get arrested. In 2023, deputies were called to a local subway regarding a theft call. When they arrived, they were expecting a simple handoff of keys from a soon-to-be ex employee. But what they got was a full-blown emotional meltdown wrapped in denial, regret, and just a dash of delusion. I excuse me. I need my store key, please, for safekeep. What did I do? You know, I have a daughter. Please don't send me to jail. You can get I'm not saying nothing. Give me Give me a few minutes. We have evidence for 3 years. Years? No. Are you out of your mind? So, right now, um, you are going to get arrested. I need to speak to you because this has been going on for a while. Can I just ask please? I don't know how to my daughter after school. That's that's we will talk about that later too. You have been told for last year I reminded you corporate on the watch. Before that I explained you corporate is on the watch. Please do not do one minute caching. I have evidence and piles and piles and piles and piles of evidence with detailed note and corporate. This is me right now. Corporate is coming after me for you. That's all I have to say. Can you not send me to jail for my daughter? You've been told before nobody else. Excuse me. I told you you had a past record. I worked my I worked hard for 6 years to drag you out of that. You had all whatever drugs felonies you have. You did not listen. I gave you my store keys. I trusted you. And guess what? You robbed me for over and over and over. I have not been He's You've been recorded now. No, you're not. You've been step out. Step out. Just so you know, you've been recorded. No matter what happened, I I have as The moment she was told she was being let go and investigated for theft, she looked stunned like this was all some kind of mixup. First came confusion, then came desperation. And then the pleading started like she'd accidentally broken the copy machine, not skimmed thousands from the register. I I don't know what he's talking about. like for 3 years and stuff. No, I I have to the best of your stealing. I don't feel like I've been stealing. You don't feel like you're missing out. So, what exactly? I feel like he treats us very unfairly. This is me right now. Corporate is coming after me. What is unfairly to you? I like there was one girl who's been working here 6 years. She still makes minimum wage. Like, he doesn't give us any appreciation. I gave you my store keys. I trusted you. And I've been here a long time. And I I know I don't mean to sound, you know, like as excuses and anything, but he's a hard man to work for. And guess what? You robbed me for over and over and over. I have not been I've never I never like intentionally meant to like I never like in my mind like stole anything. I just feel like we're all treated so unfairly. I trusted you. Now, most people confronted with that kind of evidence might show a little remorse, not her. Instead, she flipped the narrative, blaming the owner for being difficult and acting like she was the one being wronged. But the officer wasn't here to discuss management style. He was here about the missing money, and she still couldn't admit to doing anything wrong. What do you think happened when you're pocketing money or when you're taking money from the register or when you're not bringing stuff up and then later on I just understand I understand it wasn't a lot and I didn't mean I I know it did but it's it's it's fair but to the best of your recollection if you can pinpoint how long ago this started happening months months before Christmas of last year or around Christmas after after Christmas. Yeah. So like the beginning of this year. Yeah. If if you started taking money, what was the initial amount that you were taking that you can recall? A couple dollars here. A couple dollars is what? Like $2? Yeah. Like $5. It started with $5. I think I was doing it every day. I mean, it was a dollar here, too, or here and there, you know, and I'd stick it in the tip jar. Were we only talking about a dollar a month? Like $1, $2. I didn't take like 20s and big amounts. I didn't. Nobody mentioned 20s, but you did take 20s. No, I would go and get changed a lot. Maybe I didn't realize. I I don't mean I didn't think I was doing it that often. It's been every day for the past at least for the past month. It hasn't been that much. Not that it makes a difference, but it I mean I don't take a lot at a time and I I know that doesn't make a difference. So a day, but over time it How much do you take a day? $10. $10. Yeah. But yeah, here's where things took a turn. Faced with the facts, she didn't deny taking the money. She just insisted it wasn't much. A few bucks here, a Fiverr there. But what started as harmless pocket change eventually added up to nearly $20,000 in stolen cash. She was about to learn the hard way that small habits come with big consequences. You know, please can we handle this without actually arresting me? I've done so much for you too. You were told many times what you have done is enough damage to me. It's all It's totally 19,000 plus. Is it? There's no corporate will come after you and I this is my first. Can we handle this within court date or something? Please, please have my keys and I got to go. Please, Tino. I'm begging you. I don't know what to do about my daughter. I'm going to have an anxiety attack. Please. You should have thought about that before. I didn't mean to hurt you, Tino. I am I am 100% honestly sorry. Please, Tino. I've shown up every day for you for 8 years and this has just started recently and I apologize from the bottom of my heart. My daughter, I can't do this to my daughter. Please, Tina, can we handle this a different way besides sending me to jail? You do what you have to do. I I cannot be interacted. Her logic seemed to be that if you steal in small amounts, it somehow doesn't count. But spoiler, it still does. Especially when there's video of you doing it nearly every day for 6 months straight. That's when the breakdown hit. Anxiety, tears, desperate pleas to avoid jail, and mentions of her daughter. Even her expensive shoes made the list. So, let me ask you this last question. Throughout the time that you've been here, you think you sold more than $750? $750? I don't think so. You don't think so? I guess I have. I I guess I I don't I think some of the times if you see me taking 20s, it was exchanging money. The exchange does happen. The problem is you're not putting in what you're taking out. So, that's not an exchange. How is that an exchange? But I I take I do. I I know. But I don't And you know you know the game you're playing, right? So go ahead and handle this with is he says is 19,000. There's no way. There's no way. So that's why I asked you. You give me an estimate how much you think you've stolen. Not not nowhere near that. Then how much? A few couple hundred over 6 months. I would take like $20 a day. $20 a day or so. Yeah. I mean, I know that's not correct. That's not the right thing to do, but I did not steal $19,000. Listen, that's what he's in. I claim, so that's why I'm asking. It's the way he does things. He's the most rotten person I've ever met. I can't believe he's doing this to me right now. Once the final total hit $20,000, the conversation was over. She was taken to jail, booked, and released a few days later. She was convicted of grand theft and sentenced to 2 years in a Florida prison. The Subway Meltdown might have been messy, but at least it didn't come with 338 missing tires and a stolen engine. She also gave him an engine that's worth over $25,000. He has the engine. He took it. He's not paid. $57,000. Most of that was tires. On August 14th, 2023, deputies were called to a Pep Boys location in Florida regarding a theft by one of their employees. But what they walked into was a $97,000 fraud case disguised as a performance review. $97,000 over the past year. Most of that was tires. $57,000. So basically, she has a friend that owns a rental car company on Orange Avenue and he brings his cars here. She writes a ticket, puts the tires on his cars, and then deletes the ticket. And she said he pays her $50 a piece for the tires and they average $170 a piece is the one she's given them. What's this guy's name? She said he goes by CJ, but she said she thinks this is his real name cuz she also gave him an engine that's worth over $25,000. She wrote up this ticket, but he has the engine. He took it. This is not paid for it. The assistant manager wasn't just balancing inventory and sales. She was running a full-blown black market on company property. Instead of picking up extra shifts or applying for a second job, she found a more creative solution, deleting transactions and selling tires under the table. Like she was running a Craigslist side hustle on company time. She also been uh defrauding us through Lyft. She's been ordering lift rides, charging them onto bogus work orders for herself, her kids. She's having lift go pick up her kids at Harmony High School in St. Cloud and drive them here after school. And then she's getting rides for her boyfriend and for CJ. So lift rides was like $1,800 in fraudulent lift rides. The in this is all over the course of last year. The lift rides was 3 months August through November. That was recent. But there was more to it. While she was stealing from the store, she was also racking up lift rides, chauffeurring herself, her kids, her boyfriend, and someone named CJ around like fraud came with a free ride package. And when asked about all of it, here's what she had to say. These are so basic with a list. Okay. What's What's with that? So from August, September, October, and November. Okay. So it lifts up here like 12 hours straight. No, nothing's working. Yeah. You see how much help they have right now? Okay. Normally it's just two people. You see how busy it is? Okay. How do you expect me to work? Very hard. Are you single mother? Yes. Very difficult. Okay. So I lift my doing the best that you can, right? When you're here by yourself, they live all the way in St. Cloud, I'm assuming. How do they expect you to go back and forth? Exactly. So this past month start she gave the classics being a single mom is hard life's expensive. She meant well but that doesn't quite explain the 338 missing tires or the fact that every shady order had her employee ID attached to it. How did you get started? Um he came up to me. He was a customer here originally. He said, "Hey, I need the cheaper." So, he figured out what to do. He was a customer here and then so he basically said, "What items was he specifically?" Um, it was tires and it was tires. Tires and the engines. He's the same person that did the engine as well. Okay. So, tires and engines. Okay. How much was he paying you to do that? So, the tires are $50. $50 each tire. Okay. And has he been keeping up his most? Yes. Yeah. Okay. How long has that been going on for? About a year. About a year. I get it. No, I understand. hard times. Need extra cash for your kids by herself. The officer quickly caught on to the game. She was using hardship as a shield, hoping it would soften the consequences. So, he played along, listening, asking questions until she gave up every trick she'd used to pull it off, even naming her partner in crime. The tires. How have you been getting the tires? Um, usually before them or the tires. Yeah, I'm sorry. Drops off the car and you just put the new tires on the car. Do you personally do that or you make like a work order and one of the workers do that? So, one other thing that I wanted to talk about. So, from last week, they have some type of video of you moving six tires into a vehicle. Well, what was that? Last Friday or a different No, it was for a different um took it to Jorge took it to him. So, he was the corer to move those tires to that. Okay. Who was that friend that you gave those tires to? Um that was he was picking them up. Um how much was he paying you for? Um he was doing thousand for each side. No, h that's all you know on that. I think we went over everything was about oh how much how much? I don't know. I agree to that. 10,000 hours maybe 10 at the most for a year. He's paying 50 per tire and he's just using them for his uh the rentals. So we did 338 338 tires for $50. $50 tire. Still, there was no guilt in sight. She laughed with deputies and proudly admitted that she'd stolen 338 tires. like that was something to be impressed by. Eventually, she was arrested and charged with felony grand theft and scheme to defraud. She was sentenced to 9 months in county jail, 20 years of probation, and court-ordered restitution of $97,400. Because when your side hustle includes a $25,000 engine and enough tires to start your own shop, you're not just stealing, you're building your own indictment, one deleted receipt at a time.