Police arrest employee accused of running scheme to steal cash from St. George fast-food restaurant

Composite image | St. George News

ST. GEORGE — An employee accused of stealing more than $2,000 from a fast-food restaurant was arrested shortly after arriving for her shift late Tuesday night.

2020 file photo for illustrative purposes only of North Dixie Drive just north of West Sunset Boulevard, St. George, Utah, Jan. 16, 2020 | Photo by Cody Blowers, St. George News

On Monday, officers responded to a fast-food restaurant on West Sunset Boulevard on a report involving possible embezzlement, according to documents filed with the courts.

Detectives were advised that an employee of the restaurant, identified as 23-year-old Brandy Kimberly Tautolo, was allegedly involved in stealing hundreds of dollars during her shift, according to initial estimates included in the report.

Through the course of the investigation, officers learned that the scheme involved promotional discounts applied to the customer’s purchase, while the customer paid the non-discounted price, and Tautolo would then pocket the difference.

The regional manager also reportedly told investigators Tautolo would then place the cash from the fraudulent transaction in a cup located near the register.

From there, the store determined an upsurge in the number of promotional discounts applied whenever Tautolo was working the register – discounts that were issued more often than during any other shifts.

Officers also learned the suspect used a management code to apply each of the discounts, which was a unique code provided to Tautolo at the time she was hired as one of the restaurant managers.

During the first eight days of August, Tautolo reportedly applied a total of $851 in discounts during several separate transactions completed from her register, the records of which were also turned over to police.

Each transaction was captured on video and showed Tautolo taking the payment from the customer and then applying the promotional discount, and then “pocketing the cash for herself,” the officer noted in the report, adding the footage also showed her moving money from her register to the yellow cup located nearby. The surveillance footage was later turned over to investigators.

In the meantime, a review of the store’s sales receipts revealed a number of discrepancies going back more than a month, and a review of the daily transaction records indicated the losses were higher than what was originally reported to police.

From July 1, the day Tautolo was hired, through Monday, when police were contacted, the report revealed that more than $2,100 in total was taken through the promotional discount scheme.

The following day, investigators were notified that Tautolo had arrived for her shift, and they met her in the lobby of the restaurant.

According to the report, when shown the transaction records, she told police she did not know how many promotional transactions she made in a day, and when asked about the yellow cup, she said she used the cup to hold her tips, which amounted to roughly $20 per day.

When confronted, she told police she had no knowledge of the missing $2,000, the report states, adding that she was then informed about video footage that showed her at the register “stealing money from the promotional discounts and placing it in her cup.”

Throughout the interview, authorities allege Tautolo continued to say she did not know what they were talking about. When asked if there were any other employees issuing upwards of 30 promotional discounts per day, she stopped answering questions.

Tautolo was arrested and transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility and booked into jail shortly before midnight on Tuesday facing one third-degree felony count of theft. She was released from custody the following day.

This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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