The Selma Times-Journal

A fast food restaurant manager helped herself to some Christmas cash when she found a bank bag inside the night deposit box when she was making her store’s deposit at the bank, but now she’s in trouble.

Florence J. Giles, a Wendy’s assistant manager, was arrested Thursday and charged with theft of property after she admitted taking more than $3,000 from a bank bag at Wachovia Bank that didn’t quite go down the hatch before she made her deposit. She was jailed on $5,000 bond.

A Wachovia Bank representative from the main office on Citizens Parkway called Mona Pettway, the Family Dollar manager, and informed her that night’s deposit bag was empty.

Giles, 38, of Jones, had been working in Prattville prior to getting hired at Wendy’s in Selma. Police said she had no criminal record.

The incident occurred the night of Nov. 30. According to police reports, $3,552.17 was taken. Police said the money was not recovered.

Selma Police Department Det. Sandra Washburn said Thursday they clearly “saw her on the bank’s video surveillance” along with her vehicle while making the deposit at the Citizens Parkway night deposit box. Police said the Family Dollar bag was not a lockable bag.

“The video showed her reaching in, getting it out, then putting the bank bag back in,” Washburn said. “We knew she had to be from a fast food restaurant that was open late.”

Washburn said Police checked the parking lots of the local fast food establishments and located the vehicle seen in the video. Giles was called and she agreed to come in for questioning, but her luck changed as she was more than two hours late talking to police. She told police she was having car trouble.

“She said she would be here by 8 a.m., but when she wasn’t here by 11 we were going to pick her up,” Washburn said. “She did come in on her own, and her hands were dirty like she had been trying to change a tire or something.”