Lowe’s employee in Framingham charged with larceny
FRAMINGHAM MA Nov 17 2017 – A Lowe’s cashier decided to pay back a loan by letting the man she borrowed money from leave the store without paying for merchandise, authorities said.
Police arrested Erika Kennedy, 42, of Clinton, at the Cochituate Road store on Tuesday at 5:35 p.m.
Store security told police Tuesday that Kennedy had allowed a man to leave the store with unpaid items five times – the first time on Sept. 10 and the latest on Oct. 19 – without paying, according to a police report filed in Framingham District Court on Wednesday.
More than $1,100 in merchandise was stolen.
″(Store security) told me that Erika would scan only one or two pieces of merchandise and allow the male involved to leave the store without paying for the rest of the merchandise,” police wrote in the report.
Lowe’s discovered the scheme on Oct. 19 because Kennedy forgot to remove a theft removal device. Store security reviewed receipts and video and discovered the earlier thefts, police wrote on the report.
When questioned, Kennedy said she had recently broken up with someone and was having financial difficulty. She borrowed $1,100 from the man, whom she works with at another job.
“Erika told me (he) came up with the idea of paying him back for the money by letting him leave the store without paying for the merchandise,” police wrote in the report.
Police have not charged the man.
Police charged Kennedy, of 432 High St., with larceny of property worth more than $250 by single scheme.
At Kennedy’s Framingham District Court arraignment on Wednesday, Judge Martine Carroll released her without bail. She is due back in court on Dec. 28 for a pretrial conference.
Metro West Daily News
