An Amity Township man has been accused of stealing more than $18,000 in customer receipts while employed as a cashier at the Wawa store in the township.
Amity police last week charged Gamalier Soto Jr., 62, of the 200 block of Loyalsock Drive with theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception and receiving stolen property. He remained free to await a hearing following arraignment Thursday before District Judge Dean R. Patton in Reading Central Court.
According to investigators:
Police were called to the store on Maplewood Drive in Douglassville May 4 about 10 a.m. by the store manager, who had just fired Soto.
The manager said he was present for a phone call Soto had in the store with a Wawa senior loss prevention adviser who accused Soto of stealing money from the register after voiding transactions. The manager said he heard Soto admit that he had taken money.
At the time, store officials hadn’t determined the exact amount taken, but the manager said the sum was believed to total several thousand dollars. It was later determined to be $18,327, with the thefts occurring between March 21 and May 4.
On May 26, Soto drove to the Amity police station to speak with two detectives. At the beginning of the recorded interview, the detectives said they were investigating reported thefts at Wawa. Soto initially denied taking money.
One of the detectives presented him with a sheet listing line-item voids from the register. He explained that every one of those transactions had corresponding security camera footage showing him stealing money from the register, and the total amount taken exceeded $18,000.
Soto became visibly nervous, repeating “Eighteen-thousand dollars?”
When asked again if he ever stole money from Wawa, he admitted he had stolen money before but insisted it didn’t approach a sum of $18,000.
Soto explained he would leave his register drawer open for long periods. After scanning items for a cash-paying customer, he would give the customer change and put the money that was supposed to go into the register into his pocket.
Soto didn’t have an estimate for how much money he stole, but said the thefts occurred over a month or so.
Source: Berkshire mont
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