An employee of EZ Mart was arrested Monday on multiple felony warrants for allegedly embezzling over $5,000 from the store over a two-month period last year.
Emily Dell Peterson, 30, who lists a Morphew Road address, was taken into custody shortly after 1 p.m. and charged with 15 counts of second-degree forgery and one count of theft of property over $5,000, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
She was later released on bonds totaling $18,500 and is set to appear April 23 in Garland County District Court.
According to the probable cause affidavit, on Dec. 27, 2018, the manager of EZ Mart, 4600 Central Ave., reported the theft and forgery of numerous money orders by a store employee, identified as Peterson.
He stated he discovered a discrepancy in the amount of money collected from money order sales between Nov. 27 and Dec. 18, 2018. He checked each of the money orders and discovered 15 of them were written out to Peterson or her grandmother.
He noted Peterson would create each transaction but did not pay for the money orders. He provided documentation to detectives of the money orders, the majority of which were for $400 each, while a few were for $300 or $100.
He also provided copies of each of the checks, statements from co-workers and surveillance footage of the times when Peterson was at the register creating the transactions. The total loss to the store was allegedly $5,305.
After further investigation, a warrant was issued for Peterson's arrest on Feb. 12.
Peterson was previously arrested on Oct. 30, 2018, on a misdemeanor charge of theft of property under $1,000 involving Belk and Cornerstone Shopping Center. She pleaded no contest to the charge on Feb. 7 and was sentenced to one year in jail, all suspended, and ordered to pay $280 in court costs and fines.
Local on 04/10/2019