A Dollar General shopper in Florida got $2,125 worth of gift cards by using the same few coupons over and over again. Her cashier got a couple of bottles of hand sanitizer as a “thank you.” Now, the cashier has lost her job, has a felony conviction on her record and owes $1,452.50 – while her customer is in the clear.
Hope that hand sanitizer was worth it!
Nearly nine months after her arrest, 21-year-old Shatina McMullen of Leesburg, Florida has been convicted of grand theft, after entering a plea of no contest. She faced a potential prison sentence of five years, but instead has been sentenced to time served, plus $1,452.50 in court costs and fines.
McMullen was arrested back in March, after her Dollar General reported to police that she was engaging in coupon fraud. Security footage showed a customer approaching McMullen’s register with a couple of coupons and no items on which to use them. No matter, because McMullen was seen scanning the coupons over and over again, in order to build up a large negative balance that was then put onto Visa gift cards.
According to the police report, the customer, “after receiving one gift card, would then stand out of the line,” letting other customers check out, “then get back in line for the same register.” McMullen would then “repeat the procedure of running a coupon past the scanner for the register numerous times to create a balance on a separate Visa gift card.”
This went on for almost two hours, after which the customer had scored 20 gift cards worth a total of $2,125. And then she went shopping, loading up a cart with $637.98 worth of merchandise, which she paid for with her gift cards.
The transactions were so suspicious that they raised red flags at Dollar General headquarters, in real time. The police report noted that “the Dollar General security department made several attempts to contact the store and stop the transactions by computer.” But McMullen got her supervisor to override the system so she could keep going.
When later confronted by the district manager, McMullen admitted to repeatedly scanning the coupons in order to generate gift cards, and being paid by the customer to do so. Her payment? “Two bottles of Purex hand sanitizer,” she told police.
McMullen signed an agreement with Dollar General, stating that she would reimburse the store for its losses. And then she was taken into custody on charges of grand theft and fraud. The fraud charge was later dropped, but the grand theft conviction will now cost her an additional $1,452.50.
And the customer, who was long gone by the time McMullen was arrested, was never charged for her $2,125 in gift cards. Instead, her friendly cashier who agreed to commit coupon fraud in exchange for hand sanitizer, is the one who’s paying the price.
Image sources: Lake County Sheriff’s Office / JeepersMedia 
Why was supervisor not fired too? TWO HOURS? OVERRIDING SYSTEM? UNABLE TO BE REACHED BY SECURITY?
No way not involved and aware … or if truly not either aware or involved … c’mon! Needs to be fired for being such a piss poor supervisor! Clearly not good at the supervisory part of job????
Pingback: all you need is that one cashier... - deranged.mederanged.me