I am an accountant for the state of Virginia. My job is to audit local governments to make sure that they are complying with all of the rules and regulations of the state. Most of the local governments follow all of the rules and to be truthful, my job is fairly boring. I have been doing it for eleven years and have only found two small cases of fraud. Both cases were misdemeanors and handled by getting the guilty party to resign with no publicity. This story is about how I found a larger fraud, and how that discovery changed my life forever.
I was auditing a local government in northern Virginia when I found some irregular entries with regard to copy revenue. It appeared that while the number of people using the public retrieval machines had increased, the copy revenue had stayed virtually flat. Then I found that the County used public copy card keys for both staff and public copies. This raised my auditor antenna because copies made with these cards could not be separated from staff use (for which there was no charge) and public use (used by non-professionals that needed to print out pages from the system). So, I had no way of using the counters to determine if fraud had occurred because the use could have been staff that didn't have to pay.
After September 11th, the County installed security cameras that covered all of the areas of the office that might be the source of crime. One of these areas was the cashier area that took in money for filings and copies. The cameras were hidden from view, and I only knew about them because of my experience in these offices.
I found that there were three employees that had authority to operate the cash register. Two of them were older women who had worked for the office for more than fifteen years. The third was a beautiful blonde that had worked in the office for only eleven months. My gut told me that if anything was happening that was illegal, it was likely the new employee.
"Amy" was the type of girl that had ignored me in high school and college. I suspected that she had lived her entire life as the popular girl that guys got tongue tied just being around. She was 5'7" with blonde hair and blue eyes. Her features indicated that she was a real blonde. She was athletically thin with a very sexy curve in her calves and nice high breasts. Given all of the Victoria Secret padding these days, I couldn't tell if her books were B or C cup, but they were certainly very nice. I noticed that many of the men checking out at the cashier's station were staring at her. She wore short skirts that showed off her athletic and perfect legs, and she alternated between tasteful and tight tops. It appeared that she took in more money on tight tops days.
I met with the head of security for the County and asked to check out the camera records for the cashier area for the office. The camera actually recorded to a digital format, and I took two weeks worth of DVDs to my hotel room to see if I could spot any illegal activity. It didn't take long. After I watched the first few hours of the day before, I noticed that the game was pretty simple. If the blonde took in people's money, she politely asked if they wanted a receipt. If they said yes, she did everything by the book. If they didn't, she entered a transaction into the system for less money than the person was being changed, then she made correct change for the user and slid the rest of the money into a gap by the cash register that fell into a drawer beneath.
At the end of the day, she had made five transactions that totaled sixty dollars incorrectly, putting the money in the slot at the end of each transaction. But, she didn't make any attempt to get the money at the end of the day. I went back for eight days before I saw her go get the money at lunch one day when no one else was looking. She did it very quickly and I'm sure no one noticed her moves. The total amount of money diverted in those eight days was seven hundred twenty dollars.
I went back to the head of security and found out that they only kept the digital camera data for sixty days unless there was some problem. I got all sixty days worth of information and went through all of the transactions during the next three days back in Richmond in my office. I found that the total amount stolen was four thousand six hundred dollars. I knew that I needed to document five thousand dollars to make it a felony charge. The state of Virginia does not look kindly on theft from the government. If I could document ten thousand or more, it became a more serious felony charge.
To tell the truth, once I determined what was happening, I could have passed the information to another department. They would have reviewed all of the film and made the detailed notes of the theft. But, I was captivated by this girl. I kept thinking how satisfying it would be to bust a girl that represented all of the beautiful women that had ignored me during my life. It also didn't hurt that this information would be very helpful to my career.
I wanted to take her down for at least the $5,000 felony, but I had to complete my audit by the end of the week. So far, I had documented three thousand nine hundred dollars. It would take a few more weeks to get what I needed. But, the only way I could extend my deadline would be to explain the situation to one of my supervisors who would then forward the issue to the state's fraud investigation unit. If that happened, I would lose much of the credit for the bust. Then I came up with the idea that changed my life.
I decided to meet with Amy in private. I would inform her of the cameras that she didn't know about. I would tell her that I had gone through two weeks worth of tape and determined that she had stolen over one thousand dollars. I would tell her that I found the tape review boring. In exchange for her admitting how much she had taken over the last eleven months, I would recommend lighter charges due to her cooperation. So long as she at least admitted more than five thousand, she would go down for a felony. Hell, maybe she would admit to more than ten thousand. I prepared statements that she could sign admitting her guilt and the amount.
The Meeting
At 9AM the next morning I introduced myself to Amy and asked if she would meet with me to discuss some issues that had come up during my audit. She didn't appear nervous and I had fantasized that she would be sweating even before I started talking.
I asked her to enter the conference room where I had set up during the audit. I followed her into the room and couldn't help but notice how tight and small her ass was. The room had no windows and only one door for entry. I shut the door behind us, but did not lock it.
I began by telling her, "Amy, I work for the Commonwealth of Virginia's audit team. Our job is to make sure that all of the policies and procedures outlined by the state for the receipt of funds by local governments are followed. In the case of this office, I have found some discrepancies." She looked uncomfortable, but still managed to give me a small smile. I don't know if she thought I didn't know it was her, or if she thought she could flirt her way out of trouble. In any event, she didn't say a word. I then said, "I have found that thousands of dollars have been stolen from the County through the use of false receipts for copies. Do you know anything about this?"
Amy replied uneasily, "I don't think that anyone around here would take any money. If there is a problem, I'm sure it's just a clerical error." Her breathing speed up as she spoke, and I finally had her nervous.
I then said, "Amy, I'm actually sure that the theft is intentional. In fact, I'm sure that you are the one stealing the money." I had decided the night before to be direct and scare her immediately.
"I don't know what you are talking about. I have never stolen anything in my life."
"Amy, we both know that's not true. But there is something that you don't know, and that's the fact that all of the transactions that you ring up at the cash register are recorded by a closed circuit camera installed after 9/11. The camera is hidden from view and no one bothered to ever tell you about it. It recorded all of the thefts you made, including the sound. I bet you have flirted your way to over twenty thousand dollars of the people's money."
