Cashier Charged with Redeeming $23,000 in Nonexistent Coupons

If you’re going to commit a coupon crime to steal from your store, here’s a helpful hint – don’t steal more money than your store is taking in. That’s only going to raise red flags that will either cause the store to go out of business, or cause you to get arrested.

The latter is what happened to 30-year-old Ibilola Badmus of Sanford, Florida. She was taken into custody on Tuesday, for allegedly scamming some $23,000 from the Winn-Dixie where she worked.

Store officials at the DeLand Winn-Dixie first became suspicious last month, when they noticed that “the store had negative sales due to the excessive use of coupons,” according to an incident report from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. Either the store had suddenly become overrun with extreme couponers, or something was amiss.

So they reviewed transaction logs and security footage, which allegedly “showed Badmus collecting fraudulent refunds using multiple coupon codes.”

The incident report does not specify what “coupon codes” were used, and the Sheriff’s Office was unable to explain further. But the report does emphasize that “codes” and not actual coupons were used, which suggests that they may have been Winn-Dixie store coupons that were entered manually, as opposed to paper manufacturer’s coupons that the store has to physically mail away for reimbursement. At any rate, police say Badmus would enter the codes, and simply pocket the cash.

When questioned by the store’s loss prevention officer, Badmus allegedly admitted taking a total of $10,000 since January to help pay medical bills for her sick child. But the store’s investigation traced her alleged crimes back to November, making the actual total more like $23,000.

Police say Badmus had her husband withdraw $3,000 from her bank account – the only portion of the $23,000 that she had left – and turned it over to the Sheriff’s Office.

Badmus was charged with grand theft, and was released from prison on $5,000 bond. And the DeLand Winn-Dixie can go back to being profitable again, at least until the next extreme couponer – or extreme cashier – comes along.

Image sources: MikeKalasnik / Volusia County Sheriff’s Office