Disney employee stole $112K from restaurant register, deputies say

alissafalco

alissafalco

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Wow, Does anyone recognize her? It was at Columbia Harbor House
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news...ashier-grand-theft-arrest-20160608-story.html
Disney employee stole $112K from restaurant register, deputies say
Orlando Sentinel15 hours ago
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A former part-time Disney employee is accused of pocketing more than $112,000 while she worked as a hostess at a restaurant in Magic Kingdom. Katie Marie Miller, 29, told investigators she started taking the money by making fraudulent cash refunds to help pay bills, according to an arrest report. It then became an addiction, she said. She didn't realize how much she'd taken until Disney's financial analysts confronted her, according to the report. Miller was booked into the Orange County Jail on Tuesday on charges of grand theft, scheme to defraud and making false statements, according to court records. She is being held on $61,100 bail. She no longer works at Disney, a spokesperson said. The ...
She no longer works at Disney, a spokesperson said.

The company's financial analysts told deputies Miller stole an average of $5,000 a month from the Columbia Harbour House restaurant for almost two years, according to the report.

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Katie Marie Miller
Orange County Jail
Katie Marie Miller

Katie Marie Miller

(Orange County Jail)

Miller told investigators she started stealing the money in May 2013 when she was promoted to a general teller, giving her access to override and approve refunds, the report states. A former coworker, who she didn't name but said wasn't with Disney anymore, showed her how to make the fraudulent transactions.

Disney's financial analysts told deputies they watched one night in March 2015, as Miller made numerous refunds for bills worth several hundred dollars each. She used various registers, sometimes logged in as other employees, and then would enter her personal code to approve the transactions.

Surveillance video from that night caught her putting cash from the registers in a bag and then walking to a back office, according to the arrest affidavit. The bag was later seen empty, deputies said.

The financial analysts questioned Miller that night about the odd transactions and asked if she had any of the money on her. She then pulled more than $2,700 out from under her shirt, according to the affidavit.

Prosecutors filed charges against her a little more than two months ago and issued a warrant for her arrest. She was arrested last month in Massachusetts, records show, and brought back to Orange County on Tuesday.
 
Tom

Tom

Beta Return
She would have had to swipe an average of $167/day, and that's working 7 days. So she took much higher amounts on any given day. Granted, they said she had $2700 on her when they confronted her one evening. So she managed to "refund" $2700 in one day. Wow.
 
KevinYee

KevinYee

Well-Known Member
Loss Prevention is going to throw a fit, and appropriately so. As far back as the early 90s at Disneyland, we'd catch people doing this sort of thing after a pattern of $50 refunds in a day, let alone hundreds. It would only take a couple days for the pattern to become obvious. The Point of Sale machines in those days gave a report on refunds, so there's no way today's machines can't do the same. For that much money to be stolen, lots of people weren't watching the sorts of reports they should have been, and for far too long.
 
xdan0920

xdan0920

Think for yourselfer
KevinYee said:
Loss Prevention is going to throw a fit, and appropriately so. As far back as the early 90s at Disneyland, we'd catch people doing this sort of thing after a pattern of $50 refunds in a day, let alone hundreds. It would only take a couple days for the pattern to become obvious. The Point of Sale machines in those days gave a report on refunds, so there's no way today's machines can't do the same. For that much money to be stolen, lots of people weren't watching the sorts of reports they should have been, and for far too long.
Click to expand...

This is crazy. Usually something like this would become obvious almost instantly. Doesn't say much for Disney's vaunted analytics we hear so much about around here.
 
M

Mat Cauthon

Well-Known Member
KevinYee said:
Loss Prevention is going to throw a fit, and appropriately so. As far back as the early 90s at Disneyland, we'd catch people doing this sort of thing after a pattern of $50 refunds in a day, let alone hundreds. It would only take a couple days for the pattern to become obvious. The Point of Sale machines in those days gave a report on refunds, so there's no way today's machines can't do the same. For that much money to be stolen, lots of people weren't watching the sorts of reports they should have been, and for far too long.
Click to expand...
Exactly. I was a retail GM for 15 years and the level of theft of this type should never happen. This could have been caught by the GM or Loss Prevention rather easily with some actual monitoring. You have to wonder how such a breakdown in standard process/procedure could happen.
 
Jimmy Thick

Jimmy Thick

Well-Known Member
Mat Cauthon said:
Exactly. I was a retail GM for 15 years and the level of theft of this type should never happen. This could have been caught by the GM or Loss Prevention rather easily with some actual monitoring. You have to wonder how such a breakdown in standard process/procedure could happen.
Click to expand...

It depends on company policy. I know of some retail establishments that only prosecute after they get someone who works for them on video stealing three to five times that way it makes the case air tight.

$112k is a lot of money but I arrested a woman once who racked up $400k in a year stealing cash and merchandise from America's favorite retailer. If I remember correctly she didn't get much time behind bars either, like six months.

Same thing will probably happen here.

Jimmy Thick- It will be Disney's fault she was forced to steal.
 
jt04

jt04

Well-Known Member
KevinYee said:
Loss Prevention is going to throw a fit, and appropriately so. As far back as the early 90s at Disneyland, we'd catch people doing this sort of thing after a pattern of $50 refunds in a day, let alone hundreds. It would only take a couple days for the pattern to become obvious. The Point of Sale machines in those days gave a report on refunds, so there's no way today's machines can't do the same. For that much money to be stolen, lots of people weren't watching the sorts of reports they should have been, and for far too long.
Click to expand...

Loss prevention is who is responsible for catching this. It is their bosses who will be throwing the fit. Some folks at Loss Prevention should be fired.

In addition, I would guess they will investigate how widespread this practice is.

Something very fishy going on here and not just at HH.
 

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