Kroger employee charged with embezzling $275,000 from store

Dana Williams was charged with theft. Dana Williams was charged with theft. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Kroger employee charged with embezzling $275,000 from store 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A Kroger employee is accused of embezzling $275,000 from a Cypress-area store.

Dana Williams, 29, has been charged with felony theft for a scheme prosecutors say started in March 2016, two years after she began working at the Barker Cypress Road store location.

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Sometimes the Houston woman just brazenly took cash out of the safe and stashed it in a hoodie pocket, court documents allege. Other times, she manipulated the self-checkout machines to account for money she stashed away, according to a sworn affidavit.

The embezzlement scheme came to light after Williams missed work for a sick day and another employee was called in to do bookkeeping.

When Harris County Sheriff's Office Financial Crimes investigators took on the case, they found numerous videos of her pocketing money, according to court documents.

When a sheriff's office sergeant interviewed Williams, she admitted to the theft, saying she'd used the money to buy pills.

Charges were filed Friday, and Williams was booked into the Harris County jail on Monday, where she's currently being held on $500,000 bail. She's due back in court on May 31.

Kroger declined to comment.