Queensbury Wal-Mart employee arrested, accused of taking more than $70,000

[MedicCook]

Latest news: Queensbury Wal-Mart employee arrested, accused of taking more than $70,000 over two years

QUEENSBURY -- A former employee of the Wal-Mart store in Queensbury was arrested Wednesday night on a charge accusing her of stealing as much as $70,000 from the store over a two-year period, police said.

Crystal M. Wheeler, 27, of Route 149, Fort Ann was charged with third-degree grand larceny, a felony, for allegedly taking money after entering false merchandise returns into the store's computer system, then taking money based on those returns, according to the Warren County Sheriff's Office.

Matt Brasfield, the store's manager, said Thursday he could not comment on the case.

Wheeler was arraigned in Queensbury Town Court and released on her own recognizance.

http://www.poststar.com/articles/2006/12/21/news/doc458aad3b04ba0231540264.txt

[sws4420]

Holy shit. :blink:

[MedicCook]

http://images.capitalnews9.com/News9Albany_Media/2006/12/21/images/lgs_crystal2.jpg

[Razzle]

i guess its fairly easy to do stuff like this , but also easy to get caught..when i worked at the halfmoon walmart, the chick that worked in lay-a-way was taken out in handcuffs on my shift...she took customers items off lay-a-way..as if they came in and didnt want the stuff..and pocketed the cash

[MedicCook]

Woman: I stole to pay child's medical bills
Queensbury Wal-Mart employee arrested, accused of taking more than $70,000 over two years

QUEENSBURY -- A former employee of the Wal-Mart store in Queensbury was arrested Wednesday night on a charge accusing her of stealing as much as $70,000 from the store over a two-year period, police said.

Crystal M. Wheeler, 27, of Route 149, Fort Ann was charged with second-degree grand larceny, a felony, for allegedly taking money after entering false merchandise returns into the store's computer system, then taking money based on those returns, according to the Warren County Sheriff's Office.

In a sworn statement filed in Queensbury Town Court, Wheeler is quoted as saying she stole money because her infant daughter had extensive medical problems that her Wal-Mart health insurance did not cover.

Her husband works as an automotive technician at Wal-Mart in Wilton, she told police. She told police he did not know of the thefts.

"I know what I was doing was stealing, but I had to pay the bills," Warren County Sheriff's Patrol Officer William Benson quoted her as saying.

Court records show Wheeler was a customer service manager at the store and had worked there since April 2001.

She said she began using false returns to steal money in August 2003, according to court records.

She told police she would write down the universal price codes from merchandise and type them into the computer system as items that were being returned. She would then keep the money from the fictitious return. Because she was a manager, she was able to approve the return, she wrote.

Wheeler told police she would sign fake customer names to the return receipt but did not involve any customer purchases in the scheme.

"The victim of what I was doing was always Wal-Mart and not any person," she is quoted as telling police.

She said the last falsified return she did was Monday, when she took $390 for a fictitious return of a piece of exercise equipment, according to the statement to police.

After that, she was called into the store manager's office where she was confronted by a regional Wal-Mart security officer, court records show.

Warren County Sheriff Larry Cleveland said Thursday investigators had not determined whether any of the missing money could be recovered, or whether Wheeler's explanation for the thefts was truthful.

In her statement, Wheeler said her daughter was born in 2003 with medical problems that have required five surgeries, including a leg amputation, Wheeler told police.

Matt Brasfield, the store's manager, said Thursday he could not comment on the case. He said the "asset protection" staff members who handled it were not available Thursday.

Wheeler was arraigned in Queensbury Town Court and released on her own recognizance.

http://www.poststar.com/articles/2006/12/22/news/doc458aad3b04ba0231540264.txt