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Last updated on Sunday, March 24, 2013
(BLOOMFIELD) - A 51-year-old woman from Crane, first suspected of stealing money from her employer last November, was arrested in early March and last week formally charged with two counts of theft.
Anna Rochelle, of The Greene County Daily World reports, Caroline Lee Johnson, who was employed by the ShopKo store in Bloomfield at the time the thefts allegedly occurred, was arrested on March 8 then appeared in Greene Superior Court last week on two class D felony counts.
Bloomfield Town Marshal Ken Tharp was first contacted by the store in November -- the manager said she thought one of her employees was stealing money and she was going to follow proper procedure and notify the company's loss prevention officer. The company then installed extra surveillance cameras to record actions of employees.
Marshal Tharp was contacted again on March 8 -- the loss prevention supervisor was at the store with video surveillance footage of an employee allegedly manipulating money, and he was speaking with the employee -- Johnson.
The store's loss prevention supervisor advised he had seven separate videos of Johnson either making fraudulent returns and taking the cash, or opening product without purchasing.
In a probable cause affidavit, Tharp explained he observed the video evidence which showed Johnson keeping receipts, putting them in the trash then later pulling them back out, scanning them to create a return transaction with no customer present, opening the register, withdrawing money, then pocketing the money.
Tharp took Johnson into custody on the scene and transported her to the Greene County Jail where she was interviewed.
According to the affidavit, Johnson admitted to making the fraudulent return transactions and said she was addicted to pain killers and was stealing so that she could support her addiction.
Johnson is accused of stealing $484.11 in transactions that were captured on video and $943.91 before the video system was installed.
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