A call from the manager of a Sand Canyon 7-Eleven launched a Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station investigation into reports of theft from the store by an employee that resulted in felony charges, according to L.A. County Superior Court records.
The suspect, Luisa Estrada, 42, of Newhall, pleaded not guilty May 23 to a pair of charges related to the investigation: embezzlement over $400 and grand theft by an employee.
Station deputies contacted the store manager in March regarding a report that a staff member there was stealing, according to a detective’s statement in court records. The store official noticed several abnormalities while performing his regular bookkeeping activities, per a court record dated April 1.
“The manager audited transactions done by the suspect (employee) and noticed there was a large quantity of voided transactions (cancelling the transaction after completed),” according to the detective’s sworn statement about the case.
The manager said customers are able to pay at the register to load funds onto digital apps, and also told deputies he noticed an abnormally high number of these “cash app-related transactions.”
During a review of security camera footage, the female suspect, a store employee, can be seen “on multiple occasions” scanning her cellular phone after completing a transaction with a customer who paid cash for commodities.
An audit of the store’s records provided further clarity for the manager, according to the detective’s sworn affidavit: “The informant noticed there was an electronic currency transfer made behind most cash transactions, i.e. store goods were purchased and an electronic payment was made into an online banking application.”
Giving an example of the alleged theft, a $5 transaction for snacks the customer paid for would result in the suspect adding “a $160 electronic currency transfer onto the transaction, scan the account on her cellular phone (transferring the funds to her own personal account), and process the transaction as ‘cash’ to complete the purchase — shortchanging the register $160 due to the electronic currency transfer,” according to the detective’s statement in the court record.
The thefts went on for approximately three months before they were noticed, with approximately 40 allegedly fraudulent transactions leading to around $6,500 in losses for the business.
When confronted at the location and read her Miranda rights, the suspect admitted to using her personal “Cash App,” but stated she “had only been doing it for a month and stole only approximately $500,” according to the detective’s request to a judge for a search of her electronic devices.
Station officials arrested Estrada shortly before midnight March 20 and booked her at the station the following afternoon, before she was released at 6:45 p.m., according to county Sheriff’s Department records.
The criminal complaint filed last month alleged Estrada’s crimes began in January.
She’s due back in court for her next hearing in July.
