TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - An employee at the Tallahassee Staples store was arrested after making more than $1,000 worth of fraudulent purchases with a gift card from the store.
Brenden Moody, 27, was arrested by the Tallahassee Police Department on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, at about 3:31 p.m., court documents say officers were called to Staples on North Monroe Street in response to a theft.
When officers arrived on scene, they began talking with a Staples Loss Prevention agent, who said they had Moody, an employee of the store, in an office because he committed fraud and theft from the company.
The agent told officers that he was investigating a large number of gift card purchases made by Moody. He said his investigation revealed that the fraudulent purchases made by Moody began on March 1 and ended on Wednesday.
According to the agent, Moody did a total of 43 fraudulent transactions that were committed by customers making a purchase for a service, such as copying or faxing.
When the customer paid by debit or credit card, documents say Moody charged the amount of the service to a gift card, and would then use that gift card to make personal purchases from the store.
According to receipts and transactions obtained by the agent, the fraudulent purchases committed by Moody totaled $1,249.69. An additional $365.29 that was put on a gift card was also found by the agent before Moody was able to use it.
When talking with officers, Moody initially stated he "made a bad decision" and that he had "personal struggles." Documents say Moody admitted to investigators that he did make the fraudulent transactions. He stated he wasn't sure how many transactions he made, but it was between 20 and the 43 total transactions provided by the agent.
Based on his admission, he is being charged with 20 counts of organized scheme to defraud, 20 counts of criminal use of personal identification information, and fraudulent use of credit cards.
He was taken to the Leon County Detention Facility, but has since been released.
