Niamh Shackleton
A grocery store manager allegedly embezzled thousands of dollars from the place he worked over a period of 16 months.
Trevor Beaver, of Roseville, worked at Fresh Thyme Market in Troy, Michigan, between July 2022 and November 2023.
Beaver is accused a stealing a whopping $750,000 from the store's newly installed self-checkout kiosks, which the 31-year-old had access to.
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He'd been getting away with the alleged crimes up until October of last year when the store brought in an audit system for the machines.
It went on to show an approximate $900,000 loss discrepancy between cash sales and deposits while $750,000 of the exorbitant loss.
Beaver - who reportedly made sure he was the only manager in charge of depositing daily cash into the machines - went on to be confronted by management, loss prevention, and the Michigan State Police and is said to have admitted to embezzling the money.
He has since be charged with one count of embezzlement over $100,000 and one count of using a computer to commit a crime, Michigan Department of Attorney General announced yesterday (February 16).
He faces a maximum imprisonment of 20 years or more to life.
Speaking on the matter, Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement: "Retail theft doesn’t just impact Michigan businesses, but it hurts consumers when the retailer must raise prices to compensate for lost revenue."
She continued: "I am grateful for the collaborative work by the FORCE Team, the Michigan State Police, and Fresh Thyme to bring this criminal’s conduct to light. As long as this pervasive issue exists, my department’s Organized Retail Crime Unit will continue to hold bad actors accountable."
Nessel further urged people to bring in 'even the most basic mechanisms for loss prevention'.
"All stores that lack similar protections should heed this warning to protect themselves from falling victim next," she added.
Beaver's arraignment date is yet to be set.
Following from Nessel's comments about retailers having to raise their prices, one woman was left floored when her grocery bill came to almost $3,000.
Last year, Jill McCormick placed an order via the Kroger app and was under the impression she'd ordered $282 worth of goods.
However, McCormick went into ‘panic mode’ when her bank notified her that she was being charged a staggering $2,783.25 for her groceries.
It was later revealed that this was a mistake and Kroger said in a statement that it had 'rectified the incident'.
McCormick was refunded the amount she'd been overcharged.