Employee Fired After Admiting New Fraud After Apologizing For Earlier Fraud

Jan. 13, 9:15 p.m. – Main Street was the site of a crash involving a blue Toyota hitting a black Mitsubishi.

Drivers of both vehicles claimed the other swerved into their lane. No influence of alcohol was reported by the officer on the call; a cell phone was found on the driver’s side floorboards of the Toyota, but the Toyota driver denied using it while driving.

Both vehicles were towed, there were no injuries.

Two non-specified citations were issued in the incident.

Jan. 16, 7:31 p.m. – A resident came to the lobby of the police station to file a complaint about a website that trades shoes.

Apparently, the resident had a verbal agreement with another individual on the site to trade pairs of sneakers for comparable sneakers of equal value and the resident had sent the other individual the shoes, but the other individual had not sent anything back after a week.

The resident had no formal contract with the other individual and could not reach the other individual.

At this point, the officer on this call recommended the resident go to IC3.gov, a website that helps victims of internet crimes.

Jan. 19, 12:21 p.m. – The owner of a business in town contacted police for an alleged past larceny by check by an employee.

The owner said that the employee initially was outstanding, but on Jan. 2, the owner saw a huge withdrawal on his business’ bank account to the employee that was unauthorized.

Upon further investigation, the owner believed the check was forged, and an employee at the bank where the owner’s money was being held was reprimanded according to the owner.

The owner questioned the employee, who admitted forging the check and claimed it had been done over severe stress about recent financial difficulties on things such as car payments and taxes among other things, also citing that his wealthy father in Florida would pay the money back.

After this the owner agreed to overlook the incident and allow the employee to pay him back, but later on he saw 12 fraudulent credit card charges on his account equaling $2,040.17.

The charges went to things ranging from heating oil to pre-paid calling cards to tollbooths to pizza and printing supplies in Westford, Chelmsford, Tewksbury and other areas not specified.

During this time period, the owner said the only authorized credit expenditures were for autobody work for the company, and he noted he had never received his credit card or bank statements and was charged an additional $39 in late fees by his credit card company, eventually cancelling the card.

That afternoon, he confronted the employee and the employee admitted the fraudulent transactions, citing he had mixed up that credit card with a his mother-in-law’s credit information.

At this point, the employee was terminated and escorted off the premises.

Police later caught up to the terminated employee, who corroborated the owner’s statements.