Walmart employees arrested, charged with theft

Published 5:43 pm Saturday, May 21, 2016

The Greenville Police Department has arrested three Walmart employees following an investigation into theft at the store.

Lakendra Hunter, 21, of Greenville, Brandon Lawson, 21, of Georgiana, and Maya Rudolph, 20, of Fort Deposit, were each charged with theft of property.

The GPD initiated the investigation after being contacted by the store’s loss prevention department.

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“The investigation revealed three Walmart employees had stolen money from Walmart while working as a cashier between May 6 and May 16,” said Capt. Justin Lovvorn, commander of the Criminal Investigations Division.

Lovvorn said the suspects were adding money to the prepaid debit cards they receive their paychecks on, as if they were crediting money to a gift card.

According to authorities, Hunter charged more than $2,000 to her card while Rudolph charged more than $400 and Lawson had nearly $600 in charges on his card.

“By the time the investigation was complete, two of the three employees were found to have stolen a large enough amount of money that they were charged with a felony,” Lovvorn said. “We also found where some of the employees had taken merchandise from the store without paying for it as well. Sgt. Kenneth Hadley interviewed the three employees after confronting them with the evidence we had obtained. Each one confessed to the crime.”

All three were booked into the Butler County Correctional Facility.