DUBOIS – A DuBois woman who allegedly stole more than $5,000 from her employer waived her right to a preliminary hearing Friday during centralized court.
Christine M. Skaggs, 43, is charged with 21 counts of theft by unlawful taking as a result of her actions April 9, 2015 through Oct. 11, 2015 while she was employed by JCPenney at the DuBois Mall. She is free on $5,000, unsecured bail.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, in October police were told by the Loss Prevention Manager that Skaggs had been terminated after it was discovered she had been stealing money from the store.
Skaggs was suspected because she worked in the cash office and the shortages occurred during her shifts. In addition, an incident occurred where money was missing from the cash office and days later found by Skaggs.
After a review of the records in the cash office, it was determined that there was no legitimate cause for the shortages. While Skaggs was on vacation, there were no shortages.
The shortages began in February of 2015 with $100 missing and continued through October when she was terminated. On some days, the missing money totaled as high as $500, according to the report.
On Sept. 9 employees installed a covert camera in the cash office where the Loss Prevention Officer was able to observe suspicious actions by Skaggs.
She was allegedly seen entering the safe by reaching into the back of it and placing money into a cash box in the safe. That area of the safe is completely empty and Skaggs would have no reason to reach there other then to conceal her actions, the manager told police.
She was seen removing her hand that clearly had concealed items in it. She placed those items in her pockets. On one occasion, she was observed putting money under a binder and then putting something in her pocket, the manager reported.
The cash box in the safe is for the purpose of making change for large bills. She would have no reason to put money into or remove the cash box unless making change for other employees, the manager explained to police.
Based on his observations, the Loss Prevention Manager believed Skaggs was utilizing the safe and cash box for the purpose of concealing and facilitating the theft.
When he confronted Skaggs, he told her there was a camera. He asked if she was behind on her bills and she replied yes. He asked her when she first took money and she allegedly admitted it was a couple months ago. She was then asked if she started taking money in June. She allegedly replied that it was July and she was definitely taking money by August, but she was not sure about June.
She explained to him that her electricity was going to be shut off and she took money to pay that bill. She also admitted to taking $200 from the safe Oct. 11 because she was behind on her mortgage. The manager told police she estimated she had taken about $3,000.
When she was interviewed by police, she told basically the same story.
In a follow-up interview April 27, an officer showed Skaggs a listing of the dates and amounts of the thefts going back to February of 2015. After reviewing the dates, she stated she believed the thefts started on April 9 and denied taking anything prior to that.
The total reported missing beginning in April of 2015 is $5,557.20, according to the criminal complaint.
