NEW YORK—A female staff member of a Pret A Manger store in Lower Manhattan was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court Wednesday, over the alleged theft of $17,009 from the store between Aug 16, 2012 and July 12, 2013.
Jasmin Rivera was arrested at 7:10 p.m. on July 11 inside the Pret A Manger store at 60 Broad St.
Her employer had audited the refunds completed at the store during June, and found that several hundred dollars worth of transactions were carried out when no customers were in the store.
Prosecutors said Rivera had carried out more than 100 refunds over the 11-month period, putting the refunded money onto her debit card.
After her arrest, the 20-year-old defendant told police why she had stolen the money.
She said she was angry that her manager had worked her too hard when she was pregnant and she later miscarried the baby. She also said her employers had not been paying her for all the hours she worked. Her final reason was that a man had come into the store and threatened her brother’s life.
She is charged with grand larceny in the fourth degree and unlawful possession of marijuana, which police found on her at the time of her arrest.
According to court records, at around 5:30 p.m. on June 28 approximately 40 refunds had been made in quick succession totaling $304.95. About a week later, on July 8 at around 6:56 p.m., about 45 refunds were carried out in quick succession, totaling $379.65. And on July 8, at 7:12 p.m. around 40 refunds were carried out totaling $329.12.
Management at Pret A Manger then reviewed surveillance video, which showed the same female employee at the register making transactions when no customers were present, according to court records.
The theft is the second large-scale theft by employees at Pret A Manger stores in Manhattan this year.
In August, Nigel McCollum, 22, and Lenica Greene, 23, were indicted for allegedly skimming customers’ credit card details to forge them, stealing almost $10,000, the Daily News Reported.
McCollum was a kitchen employee at the 23rd Street Pret A Manger in Chelsea, where he recruited staff members to give him the credit card information of more than 100 customers, according to the indictment.
Rivera’s case will go before a grand jury on Dec. 18, with the decisions scheduled for Jan. 8, 2014.
