Teenager Working At Best Buy Pleads Guilty To Embezzling $40,000 Online!

Throughout history, greed has been the primary factor for many crimes. Just within our past, there have been historical accounts of bank robberies in industrial-progressive cities and train robberies in the wild west. These days, greed is still a factor for many crimes, but the methods of such have progressed to a technological level. Here on The Inquisitr, we reported numerous times of how technology was used for a crime scheme. This includes the Netflix phishing scam and a former IRS employee using information for an identity theft.

Now there are reports coming in that a woman has pleaded guilty to embezzling about $40,000. Not to mention the suspected is only at an age synonymous for being fresh out of high school, making her one of the youngest people to ever pull off an embezzling scheme.

According to an article by Wood TV, JoHanna Rae Taylor, a 19-year-old woman living working at Grand Rapids Best Buy, ripped off tens of thousands of dollars from the company she worked for. The Kent County Prosecutor’s Office says she used her computer skills in order to pull off the embezzling scheme which took away $40,000 worth of appliances, electronics, gift cards, and cash from the company. Talk about lack of integrity right? Best Buy taught her all the skills she needed to do her job and she uses them to steal from the company! Her “Gold Star Achievement” in October is probably null and void because of this.

MLive also reported on the crime with details of how Taylor pulled off the scheme along with frequency. From what the police say, she ordered items online and had them shipped to her home. She then used the computers at the East Beltline store where she worked to change prices of the items she got to zero. Reportedly, she used this method 82 times to get about $35,000 worth of appliances and electronics. She also got away with $561 in gift cards and $3,644 in cash.

In the end, JoHanna Rae Taylor was cooperative when she was caught. Many of the stolen items were returned and she pleaded guilty to embezzlement of $1,000 to $20,000 which carries a five-year penalty. She is also required to pay restitution for the company. At this moment, she remains free on a $20,000 bond.

This crime shows the direction in which crime in general is going: towards technology and online. From what you have read, we want to know your opinions. What do you think businesses and people can do to avoid such grand theft scams? Because of the uptick in online crimes – especially identity fraud – should there be more restrictions or at least harsher ramifications for such crimes? Please let us know in the comments below.

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