Convenience store employee charged with embezzlement in Waynesboro

The Waynesboro Police Department arrested a Waynesboro woman for stealing from her employer over a 30 day period earlier in the year. Brittany Marie Southern, 23 years old, faces two felonies, embezzlement and credit card fraud, after her boss at Speedy’s Food Mart, 1705 North Delphine Avenue, discovered she had taken nearly $1,200 in cash and merchandise from the store while she was employed there.

On February 26, the store owner notified the Police Department that he fired Southern because she had been stealing from him.

During the course of the investigation, officers determined that Southern used a credit gift card with no balance left to commit “force sales” on the store register.  She would manually ring in the credit card number for the merchandise or cash she was stealing.  The store’s credit card company would initially accept the sale, which allowed Southern to pocket the ill-gotten goods, but eventually the credit card company would reject the sale and send the store owner a $25 fee for the bad transaction.   So far the Police Department determined that Southern committed 56 “force sales” with the bogus card from between December 2014 and January 2015 totaling $1,400 in fees charged to the store.  The store owner fired her in early January after she admitted to the thefts.

Southern surrendered herself to the Police Department on March 23.  She is free on a personal recognizance bond.