On November 25th, 2024, officers were called when an employee at Macy's decided to steal from her store's cash register. And after she was caught, she tried to explain the various reasons why she did it in the first place. Okay. Hello. Good evening. How are you? Hi. How are you? Let me get out of y'all's way. I'm sorry. Thank you, Lenny. All right. Good evening. Uh, I'm Officer Gonzalez with Orlando Police. I'm Officer Wallace. That's my partner, Officer Wallace. Uh, what is your name? Mariana. You have your ID with you? It's in the car. It's in the car. Okay. Um, do you know why we're here? I do. Yeah. All right. So, uh, you're not under arrest or anything, but under Florida law, every time I go talk to somebody, I have to read their Miranda rights, right? Uh, I'm sure you've seen in TV shows and stuff. So, like I said, you're not under arrest. You're good. Take your time. Is that your water? If you want to take a sip of water or anything, you can take the sip of water. Um, I'll read your uh uh your constitutional rights, your Miranda rights. If you have any questions at any mean just at any minute just to stop me and I'll explain it to you. Okay. You have the right to remain silent. Do you understand? Is that a yes? Okay. Anything you say may be used against you in court. Do you understand? Yes. Can you just verbate it just for the the recording if it's a yes or no? Yes. Yes. Okay. You have the right to talk to a lawyer before and during questioning. Do you understand? Yes. If you cannot afford a lawyer and want one, one will be provided for you before questioning without charge. Do you understand? You want to take a sip of water? You good? Okay. Has anyone threatened you or promised you anything to get you to talk to me? No. Okay. All right. How old are you? 24. 21. 24. 24. any kids or anything? No. Who do you live with? Your parents? You You're from Orlando or um Okay. So, we got called here for allegations of some missing money, right? I'm assuming Macy's already talked to you about it. So, I'm here to get your side of the story of what happened, right? Um, I'm usually pretty up forward and I'm honest to the person. That's why I tell you like, you know, there's no secret to why I'm here. Okay. How long you've been working for Macy's? It would be four months. Four months. And what is your job here at Macy's? Sung associate in sunglass. Sunglass. So, you sell sunglasses. Okay. Uh and um part of your duties as associate at Sunglass Hut, do you do cash transactions when you sell sunglasses? Okay. So the allegations that Macy's is doing is that it's been some discrepancy on your cash register, right? Are you aware of that? Can you tell me what happened? Um to keep it short, I mean I took a few times money from register. You took money from the register. Do you have any idea how many times? A few times. A few times. We're talking three. We're talking 10. We're talking 50. Oh, it's less than 10. Less than 10. And do you know how much money you built? 2100. Yeah, that's what they said. Yeah. Well, that's what they're saying. How much you think you took? I estimated under a thousand. Under a thousand. Okay. Uh like on the times that you took, what was the largest amount you ever took in one day? 400. 400. And then what was the least amount you took in one day? I think it was like $60. 60 bucks. How how you were doing? How? Yeah. Um like you were waiting till the end of the day or when the customer hand you the money, you didn't put inside the register or how do you do? No, it was whenever I closed or open the register. When you're closed or open the register and then you will take the money out. So if it wasn't closing, I'll take it from the deposit. What is What do you mean by the deposit? Like the money that you would have sent it to another employee to make the bank deposit. Yes. Or like here at Macy's, we would go upstairs and we would like throw it into like this mail thingy. Mhm. And I guess they send it out to somebody or something like it like we put in a bag in a deposit bag. Okay. And then when you put on deposit bag, do you seal that bag? Yeah. Okay. So because this is where where I'm asking some of those questions. Okay. And I I appreciate your honesty. I appreciate you're telling me that you took some of the money, but I hate uh saying like, hey, you know, it's $2,100, right? As Macy's saying, $2,100, but you're saying, hey, it's I estimate less than,000. So, I want to make sure there's no other person involved on this. Oh, no. That could have be even without my knowledge taking that money later. I mean, without my knowledge, I wouldn't know, right? That's why I'm saying like I want to make sure like your bags were always sealed, right? Like when you did your deposit cuz like I never worked for Macy's, right? But on my young ages, so I worked for other stores and I actually worked for a bank at one point and I'm assuming it's kind of pretty similar to what you have here. So like when I work on a bank, at the end of the day, they call you batch, right? which you count your money and then you put all that information and your computer system is supposed to match. Okay, he's supposed to have $3,000 cash. When you count your money, it puts in there. Yes, it matched $3,000 cash. And then we take all that money out. We actually had it to put in order. If it was like $2,000, we were supposed to all hundreds were supposed to wrap it in $2,000. And then we put on a seal envelope that I seal. And I also had to initial the envelope. And then I go to the drawer which is like the shoot we call where you put your money and then you close. Yeah. That's what I was talking about. The little melting thing upstairs. I call it a melting thing but like a little shoot. Yeah. Yeah. So after when you close when you close your your money like your account your money how much average money you had a day. That varied a lot because I mean there were some days where there was no deposit some days where like all your sales were like credit cards and stuff like that. And then but what is the like I'll say what is the largest amount you ever had on your drawer like in total? Yeah. Like on your sales right you're did you have a minimum amount that you start Yeah. 300. You start with 300 and then whatever you sell cash then it's that's the deposit the amount plus the 300. Well, I don't know if it's plus the 300. Well, but you send that 300 back or you keep that 300 on your drawer. No. So, the drawer itself always has 300. Has to have $300. So, then if there's more than $300 when there's cash payments throughout the day, then that's the deposit that we would, you know, put in the shoe. So then every day it will be $300 a register more than night. So if you had no sales, you had $300. Correct. Right. Now if you sold $1,500 in cash, then you would have a total of 18, which is the 300 plus the 1500. I believe that's how it works. Yeah. All right. Why are you doing this? Like I told them it's for school to pay out of pocket. Um you're paying for college. Yeah. So, I did get a scholarship, but there's parts where I have to pay it back. And I have an upcoming trip. I know it sounds stupid, but I have an upcoming trip next month, and I'm short of money on that. Where are you going? Cancun. For how long? A week. A week. Going with friends, family with my boyfriend. Um, what do you where are you going to school at? Valencia. Valencia College. What are you thinking? What? Yeah. What? It's medical assistant with EKG. Oh, very good. How far are you in? I just started. How long is the program? Um, it's an accelerated course, so it's like 4 months. Oh, those are hard. Yeah. Um, and it's two days a week, but I'm using that as a stepping stone to like do nursing later on. That's I mean, it's probably one of the best industries. I wish I had a thought and went to the medical field test. It's hard. It is hard and I don't know if I can do it. So, but it's a beautiful profession. I'll tell you that. You know, it's I think it's extremely rewarding. So, I see every day like we go to hospitals every day. We see people every day. So, I have my kids in the hospital at times and I'll tell you like it's extremely rewarding. It's a beautiful profession. Uh I hope you can continue especially if that's your dream. I hope you can continue and uh succeed because it's It's amazing. Uh, how much are you paying for school? Like how much money you're short? Sorry. I'm like 6,000 short. 6,000? How much is the program? Oh my gosh. It's okay. Okay, take your time. Sorry, I totally understand. Believe me, it's over. It's over 10. So you got like tuition for like 40% of it. That's still quite a lot of money. I paid myself through the police academy and the police academy cost me 5k, you know, and to me that was a lot, you know. The only difference that the police academy is full-time, so it's extremely hard for you to work. So, I had to work most weekends and stuff and I 100% understand, you know, what you're having to go through. Um, do you had any plans to stop? What was your goal like besides the trip and like it was like when once you paid off your college that was when you were kind of like going to stop or I was going to stop after the last the one from yesterday. How much was the one from yesterday? 100 100. [Music] Do you regret at any point you thought as you were doing like I can't get caught and I can't go to jail. Um, is there anything that I forgot to ask that you want to add that you think is important? Anything on your side or anything that I miss? No. Um, would you like to write apology letter to Mes? Can I say uh prefer um in writing just because it's easier because I'll have to turn all this information to a judge and it's easier for the judge to see in writing then have to watch my entire body cam. You have zero obligations in doing it. Okay. If you don't want to do it, that's fine. You know, uh um that's this is 0% obligation. I only ask I normally give the opportunity to everybody once I they I see that they have some remorse that have some regret of doing just for you know for court purpose but if you don't want to do one now you can always do one later you can actually if we get the chance to go in front of the judge you can tell and talk to the judge over there that's up to you yeah I'll wait that's that's okay so what's like the like the process right now. Okay, I'm going to go get uh her side of the story again. I want to see like everything that she has, her statement, the evidence, and everything. And then um we're going to go from there. Uh most likely, you know, and you're probably going to be going to jail today. Okay? You will have a bond. Uh you'll be able to make phone calls and everything from the jail to get your family to help you out, to bond you out. Uh you're also allowed to bond yourself out if you have any cash record. But uh based on the little that I already saw and if it continues that they are willing to prosecute, my hands are tied on that. I have no choice but to take the job today. So which who has who has the same makes it there are the victims of the crime. So I'm I'm just the the the mitigator here. And you know as uh as far the law works every time there is a crime the decision comes from the vict uh from the victim but few exceptions right and those few exceptions I mean domestic violence homicide and stuff like that. Homicides because the victim can't speak right. So on this case which is a theft you being charged with theft. Um, and then uh the the victim is Macy's. So I know they were making couple phone calls to their superiors and stuff to trying to get the final decision. If the decision is made to prosecute you, then I will be taking you to Orange County Jail for processing. Okay. The way it works is you will go there. I will do my paperwork. Once I complete my paperwork, you get processed to Orange County Jail. I have you ever been arrested? I assume that, right? Okay. So, uh, you get process. Okay. This process can take, uh, today's Monday, so I don't expect them to be too busy. So, I'll say probably four hours, three hours, right? Fair to say about three or four hours. If you need bond yourself up, you're going to have a bond. I don't know how much your bond is going to be yet. It can be um it's probably going to be somewhere around $2,500. Now, if you go with the bonds person, you pay 10% of that money. Okay? Which would be let's say if it's 200 2500, 10% is 250. You pay that 250. You get out, but you will have a court date. And then your court date probably anywhere 3 to 6 months. You get assigned a defense attorney which no one will represent you for free unless you want to hire your own private attorney. If you want to hire your own private attorney, you just tell the state defense attorney that you don't need him, that you have your own attorney. If you want to talk to the defense attorney first, the public defendants office, you talk to them, get everything with them, and then if you okay with him and want to use him, there's a minimum cost for you. Okay. Until your, you know, until we go to court, either, you know, solve the case one way or other. All right. You have any questions for me? So, I mean, so if I go when I go to court Uh-huh. like what's the solution? Like what what happened after that? Cuz I already admitted to um pay back. Okay. So you can mention that to your attorney, okay, that you agree to pay back Macy's full reimbursement and all that and he can work with Macy's on that, okay? Um, again, I'm I'm I'm telling you some of this stuff. I'm not the best person cuz I'm not an attorney, right? I'm just speaking on my experience itself. So your attorney will give you more details to what's the solution or uh uh the outcome of your case you know in a later time but make it simple especially without being an attorney. We have every case we have couple solutions. One is the state attorney dismissing the case. Okay, which means the state attorney reviews everything and says we don't have enough evidence to prosecute her and they dismiss the case. Okay, the second solution is you coming with the agreement between you and the victim. But with that, both attorneys have to be involved. The state attorney's office and defense attorney's office, you and Macy's, the four of you will have to come in some form of agreement, right? which possibly be like, "Hey, Macy's wants you to reimburse them $2,100. You know, don't ever work. Don't ever apply for a job at Macy's again." Boom. That's one solution. I'm just saying as example. I'm not saying that it will happen. Okay? And the third one is Macy's doesn't agree on the the solution of getting paid. They want more. they want you to pay for and then you know there is more uh repercussion when it comes to Florida state law and then they can say hey she doesn't have any priors we're going to give her probation or we're going to give her jail time or whatever the judges decide in a later time. So those are like some of the outcomes possible. Uh I know it's extremely stressful if you never been in this situation. Um, you know, unfortunately, we still have to go through the process. Okay? Um, so, but I will not make any decision until you talk to your attorney. See where I'm going? You're going to have attorney appointed to you. Okay? You're going to have a defense attorney appointed to you. So, talk to your defense attorney. Talk to your attorney. let him review all the evidence on the case before you make uh uh some decision or something. Okay? Because they are the ones that can give you better advice than me, your friends, or unless your friends are attorney or just searching online on Google or something because I know you will do it because everybody does it. Okay? So, just bear with me. Let me finish with them. My partner's going to stay here and I'll be right back. Okay. You have any questions? No. What's your name again? Brianna, do you mind standing up for me, please? Is this your uh phone? Okay. All right. Go ahead and stand up for me. All right. Place your hands behind your back. Jimmy say you'll make a call when you get to the jail. We'll make a call. You want to call your family or something? I'll help you with that. My boyfriend. That's fine. We'll do that. I go through Give me Oh, go ahead. We'll call him when we get to the jail. Uh before we go inside my phone, though. Yeah, I can I'll let you do that. Normally, I don't let people do that, but uh I will uh I will let you uh make the phone call. I'll help you out. You call from your phone and then you're allowed to take once the once you go inside the jail, they will allow you to take, I believe, up to three numbers out of your phone and have on a piece of paper to make more phone calls. And then over there you can also make as many phone calls as you want. Sir, do we need any of this? N that's all Macy's stuff. Any questions for us? Thank you. Thank you. She was charged with scheme to defraud and thirdderee grand theft. Do you think she should have looked into getting a second job since that would have assisted her in making extra income instead of setting up this scheme against the company she worked for which eventually led to her getting caught? Now she has these types of charges on her criminal record which may hinder her from getting another job from other retail stores. 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