A cashier at a store in Bloomfield is accused of theft from her employer by issuing fraudulent refunds to herself when no customers were around her register. She was arrested Monday after an investigation by the Bloomfield Town Marshal.

Amanda Melissa Miller, 42, Bloomfield, was arrested by Detective Shawn Cullison of the Greene County Sheriff’s Department on Monday, November 1, on a warrant that was issued for her arrest as a result of an investigation by Marshal Kenneth Tharp of the Bloomfield Police Department.

Marshal Tharp began the investigation in late September when he was contacted by Chris Hagerdon, the loss prevention manager for Ruler Foods. Hagerdon explained that the Ruler Foods store in Bloomfield’s store manager had reported an incident involving a fraudulent refund.

The store manager said there was a shortage and she was reviewing video from the store’s surveillance system when she noticed Amanda Miller, a shift manager, completing a refund with no customer at the register.

Hagerdon told Tharp that after he reviewed the video, he looked into other refunds and in one transaction, Miller had used her own credit card for the return. He was able to trace the transaction back to show the link between her loyalty card and her credit card.

Marshal Tharp also reviewed the video and said, “… it plainly shows Amanda Miller making returns on several items without any customers at the register. In one video, Amanda Miller is observed scanning the bar code of a store tag for $9.99 several times.”

When the loss prevention manager and the store manager sat down with Miller to go over their findings with her, they asked her how much money she had taken since she started working at the store. She didn’t answer at first and allegedly was upset and asked why they made her work all day if they were going to fire her. Later she allegedly said she thought it was around $1,500.

Hagerdon said when Miller was asked why she took the money, she said she lives at home with her parents, has no kids and no bills, so she didn’t have a reason. Miller left the store after she was served with a trespassing order.

Later on, when Marshal Tharp talked to Miller at her residence, she said she didn’t think it would be beneficial for her to talk to him. Tharp told her a report would be submitted to the prosecutor’s office for possible criminal charges.

Miller is now facing a charge of theft – where value of property is between $750 and $50,000, a Level 6 felony.

A warrant was issued for her arrest and she was taken into custody on Monday – she was booked into the Greene County Jail at 5:10 p.m. with bond set at $4,000 surety with ten percent cash allowed. She posted $400 and was released later the same day.

She is scheduled to appear in Greene Superior Court on November 15 for her initial hearing.