A Wal-Mart employee was arrested at the Summerfield store last week after the company claimed she was falsifying travel vouchers.
Christelle Pierre, 27, who lives in the West Oaks Apartments in Orlando, had been working at the Summerfield Wal-Mart while the store she normally works at in Winter Garden was being renovated. A Wal-Mart official said she had volunteered to work at the Summerfield location beginning Oct. 15 and was being reimbursed for the 140-mile round trip each time she worked in Summerfield at rate of .545 cents per mile.
But Wal-Mart officials soon discovered that Pierre actually was riding to work with her brother, who also is an employee. A loss prevention officer observed her in her brother’s car and then checked video surveillance to see if she was riding to and from work with him, a Marion County sheriff’s office report says.
Store officials reported that Pierre had, in fact, been riding with her brother and had received $1,297.10 in mileage reimbursement since starting at the Summerfield store, located at 17961 S Hwy 441. They confronted Pierre about the allegation last Thursday and she “admitted to riding with her brother and falsifying her travel vouchers in order to receive monetary compensation,” the report says, adding that Wal-Mart terminated Pierre on allegations of grand theft.
After a Marion County sheriff’s deputy read Pierre her rights, she admitted to falsifying the travel vouchers and said her brother had no knowledge she was doing so. She was taken into custody and on the way to the Marion County Jail, Pierre “spontaneously uttered that she forged the vouchers in order to obtain money to fix her car,” the report says.
Pierre was charged with larceny/grand theft and released early Friday morning on $2,000 bond, jail records show.
