Crime & Safety
Woman Suspected Of Embezzling $1M From Marin Company Arrested
Shelly Breshears, 53, allegedly embezzled the money from the Plushy Feely Corp. in San Rafael where she worked as a bookkeeper, police said.
SAN RAFAEL, CA — A former Marin County woman is suspected of embezzling more than $1 million from a stuffed toy company in San Rafael and $100,000 from a paint company in Pleasanton, San Rafael police said.
Shelly Breshears, 53, allegedly embezzled the money from the Plushy Feely Corp. in San Rafael where she worked in 2016 and 2017 as a bookkeeper, Lt. Dan Fink said.
The company developed the toys with different personalities called Kimochis, the Japanese word for feelings, that are used in therapy to help children and adults become more resilient and cope with challenges of everyday life, according to the company's website.
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When the embezzlement was discovered, Breshears was confronted and left Plushy Feely, Fink said. She started working as a bookkeeper at an East Bay paint company, and when thefts there were discovered, Breshears moved to New York City and assumed a different name, Fink said.
"She got wind that we knew and she was gone," Fink said.
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San Rafael police Detective Kevin MacDougald tracked Breshears to New York City, where she was working for a property management company from which she is suspected of embezzling $40,000, Fink said.
"She was known by at least three different names. She's a constant con artist who leaves a trail of victims everywhere she goes and actively evades arrest," Fink said.
The U.S. Marshals Service arrested Breshears on Nov. 4, and she is expected to arrive in San Rafael Tuesday to be arraigned on arrest warrants dating to 2017 for embezzlement, identity theft and writing checks with insufficient funding, Fink said.
Police are concerned about Breshears posting bail and being released from jail and they will seek a bail enhancement that keeps her in custody, Fink said.
"We hope she wants to answer to the charges and go on with her life," Fink said.
Plushy Feely's new CEO Ned Kraft said Friday the company now has a San Francisco address but employees work online at home.
Plushy Feely's co-founder Ellen Dodge is the company's educational director, Kraft said.
"We're on solid footing and we look forward to growth in 2020," Kraft said.
It was a traumatic and challenging period, but the company is raising sufficient money to continue, Kraft said.
– City News Service
