A jury Tuesday found a Fred Meyer loss prevention manager guilty of stealing nearly $230,000 from self checkout machines at the chain’s Gateway store.

Emily Tallman, 37, would enter the Northeast Portland store using her badge outside regular operating hours, block store surveillance cameras with a clipboard and scoop out the cash kept inside the machines, according to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office.

The jury found Tallman guilty of 21 counts of first-degree theft and aggravated first-degree theft for stealing the cash over five months from January to June 2017.

Tallman was caught after Fred Meyer noticed large losses from the self checkout machines at the store at Northeast 102nd Avenue and Halsey Street. Tallman claimed she didn’t know why the machines were missing money, and so regional loss prevention investigators delved into the case.

It was then that the chain realized “our store’s loss prevention manager is the one stealing the money,” said Deputy District Attorney Sean Hughey, who prosecuted the case.

Tallman had no previous criminal history. Upon her arrest, she told jailers she’d worked full time for Fred Meyer for the past decade and that she lived in Ridgefield, Wash.

Tallman is scheduled to be sentenced April 12.

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

o_aimee

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