Mass. police charge employees with theft of thousands of dollars from employers
Framingham MA December 27 2019
Last week, Framingham and Natick Police arrested men who work in area stores who are accused of stealing from their employers.
Each arrest resulted in admissions from the suspects and more than a combined $5,000 stolen from the two stores.
Retail thefts increase during the holiday shopping season, but Natick Police spokeswoman Lt. Cara Rossi said she does not have numbers to say if employee thefts actually increase during the same time.
“I can’t say definitively if there’s an increase in employee theft during the holidays but two factors that might play a part if there were an increase: people are under more intense financial pressure during this season and the stores most likely increase the presence of Loss Prevention personnel to meet the expectation of much larger crowds,” Rossi said.
The Natick theft occurred at Macy’s at the Natick Mall. Police arrested Isiah Morgan, 20, of 230 Oak St., Natick, after authorities said the store caught him stealing from the cash register.
Rossi said the thefts occurred on several different days this month, ranging from about $100 to more than $900 on Thursday for a total of more than $2,200.
“It increased each time he did it,” said Rossi. “He got more brazen.”
In some of the incidents, store security caught Morgan opening up cash registers and taking cash out and putting it in his pocket. In another incident, a customer paid cash for items they purchased and, instead of putting the money in the register, Morgan put it in his pocket.
When confronted, Morgan admitted to store security he had stolen the money.
Natick Police charged Morgan with larceny of more than $1,200 by a single scheme. He was originally scheduled to be arraigned Friday. However, the arraignment was delayed to give Morgan a chance to take part in a youthful offender diversion program that would allow the case to be resolved without the arrest going on Morgan’s record.
In the Framingham incident, police arrested Alejandro Ascencio, 19, of 92 Piedmont St., Worcester, on Friday at 4:22 p.m. at Nordstrom Rack at 1 Worcester Road, where he worked.
According to a Framingham Police report filed in Framingham District Court on Monday, a store security officer had caught Ascencio conducting a scam. They told police that Ascencio would create a fake product return in the system. He would then keep the money for the fake returned item.
In all, store security told police that Ascencio stole nearly $3,750 in a week, police wrote in the report.
“When confronted, (Ascencio) admitted to the facts,” police wrote in the report.
Police charged Ascencio with larceny of more than $1,200 by single scheme.
At his arraignment on Monday, Ascencio was released without bail. He is due back in court on Jan. 22 for a pretrial conference.
