Police Say Woman Racked Up Nearly $20,000 in Fraudulent Purchases

WAUWATOSA - Police say a new auditing program led to the discovery that a store employee had racked up nearly $20,000 in fraudulent purchases at JC Penney.

A 20-year-old Milwaukee woman has been charged with one count of theft exceeding $10,000 and could face up to five years behind bars if she is convicted.

The incidents

According to her criminal complaint, the woman was employed at the Wauwatosa JC Penney as a customer service representative in the call center where she had control over price adjustments and shipping locations for store goods.

The complain says that she would reduce items to 10 percent of their retail price - or sometimes down to $1.00 or free - and have them shipped to her residence in Milwaukee.

Police say that of the 27 transactions made by the woman between August and October of 2015, there was a total retail value of the items of $19,651.92. After she discounted the prices, the total value paid for the merchandise was $434.07. After subtracting taxes and surcharges, the total loss to JCPenney was $19,254.92.

Upon investigation, police say they learned JC Penney management was able to uncover the woman's fraudulent behavior with the help of a new auditing program. The new auditing program allows them to search through transactions using a variety of parameters, including: name, address, amount of discount as well as others.