If you’re really desperate to contribute to the growing unemployment rate, here’s one way to do it – systematically steal over $25,000 from your employer… at least, that’s what two knuckleheads who worked at a Georgia-based Home Depot figured. The two now-former employees stole over $25,000 from The Home Depot by issuing more than 40 separate fake returns transactions. Think that Home Depot employees caught stealing $25,000 is a bad April Fool’s joke? Think again.
Home Depot Employees Caught Stealing $25,000
Stevie Lee Taylor and Anthony Copland are being accused of stealing ID info (mostly in the form of drivers license numbers) from dozens of customers and then falsifying returns. One employee would tell the other how much money he needed via fraudulent returns and the two would enter the product codes into the store’s computer system and into registers to make the returns appear valid.
Apparently, they then put the credits for the not-really-returned products onto store gift cards which they could cash in at other stores or sell to unsuspecting people. Fortunately, for justice, they a) got greedy, and b) left a trail a mile wide – in the form of hundreds of text messages which occurred over a very brief period of time.
According to the warrants, each suspect is looking at over twenty felony charges, including identity fraud, computer theft, computer forgery and racketeering.
