News Graphic, Cedarburg: December 30, 2010 -Page 8b
Mequon — Mequon police are investigating a report that an employee of a grocery store took $1,300 in cash from the store Dec. 17. The incident may be a theft or the employee being the victim of a scam. Police arrested the employee, a 46-year-old Menomonee Falls woman, on a charge of theft. However, a Mequon police sergeant said Wednesday that the case has not yet been referred to the district attorney's office while detectives continue to look into the matter. Police said a clerk at the store received a phone call Dec. 17 from someone who said they were from the corporate office. The person on the phone said that a customer had a purse taken and later returned, but $1,300 in cash was missing. The person on the phone said the company wanted to reimburse the victim. The caller told the clerk to take money from the store and drive it to a location near 26th Street and Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee to return it. The corporate office would replace the store's money and send it immediately by Federal Express, the caller said. The clerk who took the call said she didn't have the authority to do this and gave the phone to the 46-year-old Menomonee Falls woman, also an employee who happened to be in the store shopping. After speaking on the phone for a while, the woman took the money and drove it to the location in Milwaukee and handed it over to someone outside of a check cashing store, police said. The woman then returned to the store and, as directed by the caller, waited for Federal Express, which never arrived. The following morning, the Menomonee Falls woman did not report the incident to initially learned of the incident when a store manager reported the theft, police said. Surveillance video corroborates the reports of the phone call and the woman waiting in the closed store for Federal Express, police said. Police are continuing their investigation by checking with other Milwaukee area police departments to see if there have been similar incidents. Detectives also plan to subpoena phone records, police said.
(Gary Achterberg can be reached at gachterberg@conleynet. com.)
