TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - The final two employees accused of stealing more than $45,00 from the Tallahassee J.C. Penney store have been arrested.
Khaleb L. Coleman, 19, and Anthony Lavone Forrest, 23, were booked into the Leon County Detention Center on Monday, and each was released on a $2,500 bond.
They were arrested by Leon County Sheriff's deputies.
The arrests of Coleman and Forrest follows those of three 18-year-olds arrested earlier in the case: Taylor Andrews, Rayanne Eckerberg-Wings and Kyle McMillian.
Multiple JCPenny employees arrested after stealing more than $45k from store
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Multiple Tallahassee JCPenny employees were arrested after admitting to stealing money from the store, totaling over $45,000.
Taylor Andrews, 18, and Ryanne Eckerberg-Wings, 18 were arrested by the Leon County Sheriff's Office and Kyle McMillian, 18, was arrested by the Tallahassee Police Department on Friday.
Andrews' mugshot has been exempt due to Florida Statue 119.071.
Anthony Forrest, 23, and Khaleb Coleman, 19, have not been arrested yet.
On Sept. 10, an asset protection employee of JCPenny sent TPD an email listing the suspected employees involved in stealing money from the store.
The next day, the employee told officers how the fraud was taking place. According to the employee, when a customer would come in and make a purchase with cash, the suspected employees would make a copy of the receipt.
The following day, they would enter the information into JCPenny's system from the sale's receipt and pocket the refunds in cash.
All of the suspected employees each had their own login for the system and JCPenny did not become aware of the situation until some customers returned to the store to return their items.
When JCPenny checked the sold items, they learned they had already been returned with the refunds given back. JCPenny did reimburse the customers for the items.
The asset protection employee turned over files for the five suspected employees, which included receipts, statements, and the amount of each person's theft, which are as follows:
- Andrews total amount of theft: $12,671
- Eckerberg-Wings total amount of theft: $8,000
- Forrest total amount of theft: $5,309
- McMillian total amount of theft: $15,208
- Coleman total amount of theft: $4,504
The total amount of theft from the five employees was $45,692.
TPD then conducted interviews with each of the five employees.
Andrews admitted to officers he took $7,671 in cash and either taking or giving to friends or family $5,000 in merchandise.
Eckerberg-Wings admitted to either taking or giving friends $6,000 in merchandise and taking $2,000 in cash.
According to Eckerberg-Wings and Andrews, the theft didn't start until June 2018 and continued to Sept. 11.
Forrest admitted to taking $1,809 in cash, $2,500 in merchandise, and $1,000 worth of merchandise that he passed off to friends.
McMillian admitted to taking around $4,000 in cash, $1,500 worth of merchandise, and giving away around $3,000 worth of merchandise.
Of the $15,208 he's accused of stealing, McMillian only admitted to taking $8,500.
Coleman admitted to taking $4,104 in cash theft involving returns and around $400 in merchandise.
Based on their admission, they are all being charged with organized scheme to defraud under $20,000.
Andrews, Eckerberg-Wings, and McMillian were all taken to the Leon County Detention Facility and placed on $2,500 bond.
All three have since bonded out.
