She claimed she just wanted to give discounts to some of her best customers. But now, a former supervisor at CVS will be paying the price for her generosity.
41-year-old Denice Reed of Easton, Pennsylvania was originally scheduled to go to trial this week on felony charges of theft and receiving stolen property. Instead, she agreed to a plea deal during an arraignment, avoiding a felony conviction but not escaping punishment.
Reed was arrested last Halloween, charged with ringing up $3,000 worth of nonexistent coupons during her shifts at a CVS in nearby Wilson Borough. Store management called police earlier in October, after discovering “multiple instances of coupons being redeemed during Reed’s transactions, but there was no evidence the coupons actually existed”.
Police say Reed admitted fraudulently keying in coupons “so she could help out customers that she knew”. She insisted that she did not profit from the scheme.
But any goodwill she may have earned by selflessly giving away discounts to shoppers, ended up evaporating when management also discovered that “cash was missing from the office” during Reed’s shifts. Management says she admitted pocketing a total of $500 in cash over a period of about six months.
Reed was fired, then arrested. If convicted on the two felony charges, she could have faced up to seven years in prison. Instead, she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of misdemeanor theft. She was ordered to pay CVS $3,500 in restitution, plus $2,657.71 in court costs. And she’ll be on probation for as long as it takes her to pay it off.
Reed’s customers may not have known the full story when they showed up to shop and realized their favorite CVS manager was no longer there to give them a little extra discount. So now they’re stuck having to use actual coupons for legitimate savings.
As for Reed, her misguided generosity will now cost her over $6,000 – more than twice the value of the fraudulent coupons that she entered for her customers. And she won’t be able to key in any coupons to help her with that.
Image sources: Northampton County Jail / JeepersMedia 
