how much money we talking about 65 700 uh no 65 or 7 k talking about six to seven thousand I had to start watching the cameras and then I'm realizing that he's that was stealing money every night that he was working he was going into the drawer and packing in the money and never there's never anybody who needed the money exactly he was just pocketing it exactly I I didn't even know that he was doing that because I start paying attention as you see he starts talking to me kind of like distracts me a little right ON MAY 8TH, 2025 DEPUTIES IN BELLE GLADE FLORIDA INVESTIGATED AN EMPLOYEE THEFT COMPLAINT OVER FOUR MONTHS MORE THAN $6,000 HAD DISAPPEARED FROM THE REGISTER AT CLAY'S AUTO PARTS $17 THAT IS WHAT A SINGLE BATTERY CORE RETURN IS WORTH IT WAS THE SUSPECT'S ONLY DEFENSE THE TOTAL SHORTAGE EXCEEDED 6,000 WHEN THE MATH FAILS THE DEFENSE USUALLY FOLLOWS I had an employee working here uh huh and uh through a period of time paid that amount how much was that do you remember about 60 five hundred I think I told them well I don't remember doing any OK what's going on I had an employee working here and uh through a period of time he was stealing money but you know we do collections you know with other people right they buy the cars and they pay us a day later two days later right so you know things happen like that and um what was happening is that um money was not adding up a lot so I had to take my time I um so then what we had to do is I had to grab the money from other days to finish up you know my deposits uh huh and then I started to realize that more money was missing more money was missing so um I had to start make a couple of changes and then after that I had to start watching the cameras and then I'm realizing that he's that was stealing money every night that he was working he was going into the drawer and packing in the money and then going or he was doing transactions a ghost transactions kind of like I can say where like he will return the parts of the customer had just previously bought that day and then he was packing in the money and when did how long when did this start uh honestly boss like right now I have I have dig up videos like I said he he worked like five days a week so I have seen videos uh probably about to maybe two months three months but he's been working for the company for three years you know but the biggest changes are happening now which it was not just the the the the money but you know he was doing that with the products like you know he was no not charging the people the money and then or and then not giving the the the customers the the the just giving the the product so you know you will not be able to see that because the transaction is not there okay but we were missing my my my merchandise okay so then we started to look into it but you know that's really hard to find out how how it's done and then but now everything makes sense when I caught him in the video where he will sell for example he sold two wiper blades right maybe 20 bucks right but then before he left he will return the wiper blades and I have the two the two invoices he will return the white place nobody's here and then he will grab the $20 and then spot it and then he will grab more than that you know and then just put the receipt saying that all you know the customer return it so now we're sure the money and then we're surely proud so then you know that's what can and then when I confronted him you know I do have a recording I confronted him he agreed that he was gonna pay me the money within three weeks okay and I'm telling you this because you know I like you know I give him an opportunity to pay the money you know I didn't wanna I didn't wanna go to this right right he just told me he can pay he said he doesn't have the money he's not gonna pay OK so then he broke the uh verbal contract that we have I have it recorded OK I have the videos and then that's the reason why I just spoke with my boss my boss said you know call the police get it done okay because it's okay so when when when did you got any like receipts of you got receipts of the transactions or I do I can pull them through like the I can pull through like the the that's how I was doing I think I have some here okay but I'll give me one second um that's how I that's how I I end up watching the videos because um I started to see something that it was like kind of like a not obvious but then I like a 4:45 you know 5:00 when everybody leaves which is two people of him and and the other person he will return it that didn't start to make sense I started to watch that and that's how I caught some of the videos but then he saw the time where like um maybe my assistant manager will be here with him on a on a Saturday he will go to get something and he will go to the drawer and he will pack the money he does have the videos um let me call him he can show you the video well we're gonna need you to dig because this is serious this is serious and we need all the receipts take your time okay how much money we talking about 65 700 uh no 65 or 7 k talking about six to seven thousand but the problem is this is the situation there's eight people working here and we can use anybody's code so it was not Josie's code that is other people's code that have been used to return things so like that's why it's difficult for me to pinpoint every everything but the money that is missing and the money that he agreed to pay it was 65 I think it was 60 five hundred now the agreement you have with him unfortunately that part is is simple the moment you start making agreements with him that he's gonna pay you now what what you know for sure that's what we need what you know for sure that attached to him okay I can wait I can I can put everything that I have uh and all the all the returns that you have don't have to be collected now because they need we're talking about months worth of evidence yeah we have something now yeah we have something now I need a sworn statement uh or what you telling me and I can send you a link if you have any video you can i'mma send you a link you can send it to the video no no problem well usually um I I will have to look at the videos and I have to write the dates now the $6,000 you mentioned is that what you can pinpoint to that particular person that's the that's the money that we're yeah we're missing for the my whole collection has been here he's been here now you told me some of them you're not able to prove it's him because people are because like I said yeah because we we can but that's the like the amount that we're short you know that's the amount that I I can say it was him because he's um no he's the only one that has been caught stealing so nobody else they don't work like that I don't know how to I don't know how to you know but that's the amount yeah it's gonna be what you know he did yeah okay but the thing that's what I was trying to say like so if you I have the videos but you know the videos it shows like he grabs money but we can't really see how much money he's grabbing but I see the transaction that he's returning I have those the thing is that he was let go before he was let go before because he was coming in late you know again and that time money was being missing so he got let go I let him go right then he promised me he swore to me that you know he was gonna be on time that he was gonna be better at that time money was not being amazing but you know we were already had a shortage so he came back a couple of months afterwards and I guess that's when he decided to go ballistic and you know take as much as he could and that's the reason why he got caught okay now who is the alleged suspect his name is Leonardo Flores and how long has he worked here he's worked here sir for I think about maybe three years three years yes sir and when did you notice we you know we've been short money for a while but like I never expected you know that he was him probably maybe does it have employee login that you can say that it's him yes so most of the ones that I pull out right now is under his name under his name yes it says he has his initials and it has the time that he did it I cannot account and I cannot 100% say sure that he did not do it on the other people's names because we do not have passwords so it could have been done on the other people's name as well but the ones that I am I do I did print out for evidence are under his name okay and those are the ones that we have video showing correct the actual non returns of stuff that he said that was returned okay alright um you you spoke to his father and him recently about this before you called law enforcement correct and you were able to let them know hey I'm gonna record this just for you know my my records so we can get this past you recorded on your cell phone and during that conversation when you confronted him and his dad is there anything else you can think of that you want to add to this uh interview the statement about this whole case yes so I did ask my staff mm hmm you know I did ask my staff and this is why you know I I I'm I'm just asking him for the whole amount I did ask my staff because my staff did tell me everybody that close with him that every day almost every night that they close he was always getting money he was always saying returns you know they sometimes they give them the money sometimes they didn't they say that they find it suspicious and that's the reason why some things came to my ear because of my staff you know that he was every night he was saying that he needed to get the money or needed money or thing like that he always has something to take out of the drawer and that was a closing time okay so your staff working with him during closing they would notice that he would say hey somebody made a return I gotta give them the money can we get the money out of the register to go give them the money correct and then he leave the store with the money and never there's never anybody who needed the money exactly he was just pocketing it exactly so my staff you know I asked him they must have you know confirmed it because like I said I have it on the video right they confirmed it and they told me because you know I have a audio on some of the cameras and one of the cameras right but you know sometimes you cannot hear when he says you know that it was for his friends for his dad or for anybody that he was getting the money but the staff did confirm and everybody that has interacted with him has confirmed that it was the same story all the time okay I'm here investigating an employee theft that occurred over about four or five month time frame um during a couple of these incidents I do see that you um were an employee present during the time frame of these and thefts happening how well do you know Leonardo Leo um I would say we're we're good friends good friends good friends OK um how long have you worked with them um I would say well since I got here he was here he was already here so about two years yeah and then he got laid off and then he came back okay this incident you're here in the store with Leo do you remember these incidents if you look back towards closing yeah so you and him were close together right he prints something on the printer you see him messing on the computer and then he prints something to the printer he takes it off the printer um I guess you start counting the drawer he comes over to you with I've what I believe is a return receipt and do you remember what he tells you or anything he tells you about is this a common uh practice to bring a return receipt no to the register and take the amount that the return is for out and give to get the cash and then leave the store with it no have you ever seen any other employees do that no OK so this is this is the only time you've seen somebody do this was when Leo was doing it I I didn't even know that he was doing that because I start paying attention as you see he starts talking to me kind of like distracts me a little right I noticed you know when I started to realize what was going on'cause and then he starts like doing whatever he starts doing he starts talking to me and then I start have to come at the money again and you know I get a little distracted that's you yeah and then that's another employee yeah that's you okay so this day I'm gonna skip to the part where um do you recognize this person here yeah okay who's that that's Leo Leo okay and he's an employee who works with you too yeah we used to so when you close us the store do you um count the money in the register usually yeah I count the money okay um do you remember when Leo approached you when you were counting the money in the register and he was um trying to take some money out of the register during that time frame yeah I I remember one right here one time that he asked me if I already count all the money uh huh and I say why and I ask him why and he say because he he need to return some some stuff that his dad already buy and he return and he need to take the money to him OK and and and and I was I don't I don't feel anything weird in that moment because sometimes we do return of the customer some return of the customer uh huh and he or he took the money and that was all and I continue counting the money okay so he took a return receipt off the printer and he came to you while you're counting the money in the drawer and he's taking money out of the drawer do you even know how much he took out or I don't remember OK because he was talking to me he was trying I don't know distract you so he's talking to you yeah and then he's taking the money while he's talking to you so you're not paying attention what he's taking but it's clear that he did take money out of the register um so he said that it was a return for his father cause of one of the parts OK is that that sound about right yeah LEONARDO FLORES FACED TWO CHARGES UNDER FLORIDA LAW SCHEME TO DEFRAUD AND PETIT THEFT THE SCHEME CHARGE FALLS UNDER FLORIDA STATUTES SECTION 817.034 IT TARGETS SYSTEMATIC ONGOING CONDUCT DESIGNED TO OBTAIN PROPERTY THROUGH FALSE OR FRAUDULENT PRETENSES THE PROSECUTION MUST PROVE TWO ELEMENTS ENGAGEMENT IN A SCHEME AND PROPERTY OBTAINED AS A RESULT THE WORD SYSTEMATIC IS CRITICAL A SINGLE THEFT DOES NOT QUALIFY THE LAW REQUIRES A DEMONSTRATED PATTERN UNDER THIS STATUTE AMOUNTS FROM SEPARATE TRANSACTIONS WITHIN ONE SCHEME ARE AGGREGATED FOR SENTENCING THIS AGGREGATION RULE TRANSFORMS MULTIPLE SMALL THEFTS INTO A SINGLE FELONY CHARGE CARRYING PRISON TIME WITH A TOTAL UNDER 20 THOUSAND DOLLARS THIS CONSTITUTES A THIRD DEGREE FELONY IN FLORIDA THE MAXIMUM PENALTY IS FIVE YEARS IN STATE PRISON AND A FIVE THOUSAND DOLLAR FINE THE SECOND CHARGE FALLS UNDER FLORIDA STATUTES SECTION 8 12.014 THEFT PETIT THEFT APPLIES WHEN STOLEN PROPERTY IS VALUED BELOW 750 DOLLARS IT IS A MISDEMEANOR CARRYING UP TO ONE YEAR IN COUNTY JAIL AND A 1 THOUSAND DOLLAR FINE THE DUAL CHARGE STRATEGY CAPTURES BOTH THE ONGOING PATTERN AND THE INDIVIDUAL ACTS THE SCHEME AND ITS COMPONENTS THE STRENGTH OF ANY PROSECUTION DEPENDS ON EVIDENCE QUALITY THIS CASE PRESENTS A STRONG BUT IMPERFECT PACKAGE SURVEILLANCE FOOTAGE FROM MULTIPLE DATES SHOWS FLORES PROCESSING COMPUTER RETURNS WHEN NO CUSTOMERS WERE PRESENT TRANSACTION RECORDS CONFIRM RETURN RECEIPTS UNDER HIS LOGIN INITIALS WITH NO PRODUCT EVER RETURNED TO INVENTORY MULTIPLE CO WORKERS INDEPENDENTLY DESCRIBED THE SAME PATTERN FLORA'S TAKING CASH NIGHTLY DURING CLOSING SHIFTS A RECORDED CONFRONTATION CAPTURED FLORES ACKNOWLEDGING THE SHORTAGE AND AGREEING TO REPAY ROUGHLY SIXTY FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS THAT ADMISSION IS PARTICULARLY SIGNIFICANT BECAUSE FLORES WAS NOT IN CUSTODY WHEN THE MANAGER RECORDED THE CONVERSATION UNDER FLORIDA LAW THE RECORDING WAS MADE WITH HIS KNOWLEDGE MAKING IT ADMISSIBLE AS EVIDENCE HOWEVER ONE CRITICAL WEAKNESS EXISTS THE STORE HAD NO INDIVIDUAL PASSWORD PROTECTION ON EMPLOYEE LOGINS ANY EMPLOYEE COULD PROCESS TRANSACTIONS UNDER ANOTHER'S NAME CREATING REASONABLE DOUBT BASED ON DIGITAL RECORDS ALONE THE SURVEILLANCE VIDEO BRIDGES THAT GAP CONNECTING THE DIGITAL TRAIL TO PHYSICAL CONDUCT CAPTURED ON CAMERA WITH PROBABLE CAUSE ESTABLISHED OFFICERS PROCEEDED TO MAKE CONTACT WITH LEONARDO FLORES AT HIS RESIDENCE I just need to get a quick statement from you I'm over at the office are you have any idea what I'm talking about uh no I don't alright alright if you want to just throw some shoes on and uh we'll we'll go this deputy will take you over to the office and we'll go talk about it more what do you got what do you gotta go all the way to the office yeah we have to do it by the books you know so just get some shoes on we'll go over there and knock this out you gotta go did you wanna talk to me oh OK alright so this deputy will take you up there and I'll meet you over the office um your first name uh Leonardo Leonardo Leonardo yep on your last name Flores uh F L O R E s yep so Mr Flores having these rights that is read to you in your mind right now um do you want to talk to me about this case that your name has been brought up in I like to know okay so you were formerly employed with the company um Clay's Auto Parts correct how long did you work there three and a half years three and a half years was that it well when I came back it was probably like four months three months so you worked originally and then left yeah okay and then you came back and worked I can't yeah I came back and worked for a little bit more okay do you know of any um false returns that were made false returns no do you know what a false return I'm I'm referring to like you know what it is no it's about it's these return receipts here your user login is LF is for your first and last right so your boss started noticing that money was missing every day from the money drops so he started doing a little investigation to see why there was just money every day usually he says that sometimes you could catch it it's a account that hasn't been paid here but every day it was giving him a heads up so he started digging into okay maybe the employees are not doing what they're supposed to be doing he wasn't accusing anybody of theft he just thought maybe it was a mistake but by looking through he did find that um there was a lot of transactions you were doing returns but the product wasn't being put back into the product database basically so he started looking into your returns and some of these returns you're doing returns on the computer when there's no customers in the store and then you're taking the money from the register and you're putting in your pocket this is your time to talk so let me hear you're why you're doing this stuff man well I don't remember doing any false returns at all and uh everything from the course that's all I'm that's all I know about the course the course you what are you referring to he's told me about the battery course battery course I don't know if he's talked to you about that but he's told everybody else that battery course whoever works on the car mm hmm gets to keep the battery core so you mean like a replacement battery yeah so whenever a customer comes and gives us the old battery mm hmm we um they either get the $15 back for saving the um on the battery or if we fix their if we put their car battery on then we get that we go um so you're saying every time that you've taken money from the register and put in your pocket is from battery course well I'm not saying that it took money out but everything is on the system everything that is on a ticket if if you guys look at um the time where the uh he showed me a video where it was like he seen that $15 was taken out okay that same time on his system it states that that was a court taken out and back then what I used to do I used to put the receipt right at the camera OK and show them like this is the receipt I used to do when I first when I started um getting the course but now he's saying that is it's not legal I guess I don't know but if if it's not legal you know Sylvester Sylvester also and also Marvin keeps the course so I'm like what's the now you're gonna tell me that the cores are not are not liable now you're gonna tell me the cores are our death after he explained to us that every employee knows that yeah he's talked to us in the meetings about that okay so he's told you and everybody else that you guys work on a car you can keep the core battery to do the return on basically to get that what is it 15 17 dollars I think it's like 17 can you explain you doing a return for something that's not in the the product when they go back and do inventory there's no inventory of any of this stuff that you did returned I mean I'm pretty sure that stuff there that is like I guess falsely it's all on I it's all on tickets that I have open uh huh and every ticket that I have open I have paid slowly you talk about so it's crazy how it's open tickets he tells me that we can have open tickets but it's crazy not saying that we had he's uh it's false or it's false returns or anything well I'm telling you what he told me that nobody's ever been told that they can keep core batteries that the core money is supposed to go towards the company wow okay so but I mean you're saying he told you that he told the whole group he told us he has he has meetings right he told me about weekly meetings but yeah he didn't he mentioned that nobody was told anything about keeping quarters and that the quarters is supposed to go towards the I know it's just it's what he's telling me as a business uh manager and as a victim of this crime right now um so all these I have five different transactions over a four month period that he was able to provide me with video evidence um of you pretty much print out a receipt on the on the printer which right here correct printer here you print out a receipt you go over you rip it in half and you take money out of the register or somebody else is at the register you ask them for the money well we're ripping it in half that means that UH one goes into the box uh huh the one we keep and one I take this my is my receipt okay and that's the course and it's also crazy saying that that he's getting missing money but since everything's on the system that those seventeen dollars are on the system that we're taking out for a core so how is I don't understand how is he gonna say that there's money missing on the accounts but it's all on it's all on the computer just saying other all the employees are aware of this core battery return yeah that and the thing is to do other employees do the core battery refunds and keep the money yeah um Sylvester and Marvin himself when they change the battery uh huh that's what's crazy that I'm like are you gonna tell me now that when I change the battery you gonna say I can't keep it I can't right or nobody can keep it alright is there a is there anybody who can vouch for him telling you that um there is but like I don't I don't really want them to like get involved not not that what would you what would you leave for when you first got hired what would you leave for um the first time and then you came back again what was the reason you left for the first time uh I was trying to find another job but at the same time um mostly I did a tardiness tardiness yeah okay so they didn't keep catch you stealing from the register and fire you no it was tardiness alright why would they tell me that they caught you stealing the first time and they had to let you go for that you were taking money from the register he said that too yeah wow on my well on my report on my um on my app it says that I was like a go for tardiness what what app like um flex check check flex or something like that OK FLORES CLAIMED EVERY DOLLAR HE TOOK CAME FROM BATTERY CORE RETURNS HE BELIEVED THE MANAGER HAD AUTHORIZED HE STATED THE POLICY WAS ANNOUNCED IN GROUP MEETINGS AND THAT OTHER EMPLOYEES ALSO KEPT THE CORE REFUND MONEY EACH CORE RETURN IS WORTH 15 TO 17 DOLLARS THE TOTAL SHORTAGE EXCEEDED 6,000 THAT ARITHMETIC REQUIRES ROUGHLY 350 BATTERY INSTALLATIONS BY ONE EMPLOYEE IN FOUR MONTHS LEGITIMATE CORE RETURNS SHOULD ALSO GENERATE MATCHING INVENTORY RECORDS THE SYSTEM SHOWED NONE THE MANAGER DENIED AUTHORIZING THE PRACTICE FLORES NAMED POTENTIAL WITNESSES BUT DECLINED TO INVOLVE THEM EVEN IF SOME CORE RETURNS WERE GENUINE THEY CANNOT EXPLAIN FRAUDULENT TRANSACTIONS INVOLVING NON BATTERY PRODUCTS UNDER FLORIDA EVIDENTIARY STANDARDS THE BURDEN REMAINS ON THE PROSECUTION BUT THIS DEFENSE LACKS ANY SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION PROCEDURALLY THE INVESTIGATION MET CONSTITUTIONAL REQUIREMENTS MIRANDA RIGHTS WERE ADMINISTERED BEFORE QUESTIONING FLORES WAIVED THOSE RIGHTS VOLUNTARILY AND AGREED TO SPEAK HIS STATEMENTS AFTER WAIVER ARE FULLY ADMISSIBLE TACTICALLY THAT WAIVER WAS ARGUABLY HIS MOST DAMAGING DECISION IN THE ENTIRE CASE THE FIFTH AMENDMENT EXISTS PRECISELY FOR MOMENTS LIKE THIS HIGH PRESSURE INTERVIEWS WHERE WORDS BECOME EVIDENCE HIS OWN ADMISSIONS TAKING CASH AND NAMING CO WORKERS GAVE PROSECUTORS EVIDENCE BEYOND WHAT THE CAMERAS CAPTURED THE INVESTIGATING OFFICER EARNS AN A MINUS EVIDENCE COLLECTION WAS THOROUGH STATEMENTS FOOTAGE RECORDS AND WITNESS INTERVIEWS THE ONE GAP NOT VERIFYING THE BATTERY CORE CLAIM THROUGH THE SPECIFIC EMPLOYEES FLORES NAMED PREVENTS A FULL A LEONARDO FLORES RECEIVES A D SUBSTANTIAL EVIDENCE A WEAK DEFENSE AND A WAIVED RIGHT TO SILENCE DEFINE HIS GRADE HIS COOPERATION PREVENTS A FAILING GRADE BUT THE LEGAL DAMAGE FROM SPEAKING WITHOUT COUNSEL WAS SELF INFLICTED THE STORE MANAGER EARNS A B+ A DETAILED INTERNAL INVESTIGATION AND A WELL ORGANIZED EVIDENCE PACKAGE BUT THE PRIVATE REPAYMENT DEAL AND THE ABSENCE OF LOGIN PASSWORDS BOTH WEAKEN THE PROSECUTION'S POSITION THREE LESSONS EMERGE FROM THIS CASE APPLICABLE TO BUSINESS OWNERS EMPLOYEES AND ANYONE FACING THE LEGAL SYSTEM FIRST INTERNAL SECURITY CONTROLS ARE NOT OPTIONAL INDIVIDUAL PASSWORDS WOULD HAVE ELIMINATED THE STRONGEST DEFENSE ARGUMENT A SYSTEM WHERE ANY EMPLOYEE CAN USE ANOTHER'S LOGIN IS A SYSTEM DESIGNED TO CREATE REASONABLE DOUBT SECOND NEVER CONFRONT A SUSPECTED THIEF PRIVATELY OR NEGOTIATE REPAYMENT BEFORE CONTACTING LAW ENFORCEMENT PRIVATE AGREEMENTS CREATE ARGUMENTS AROUND AUTHORIZATION AND CONDEMNATION THAT DIRECTLY UNDERMINE CRIMINAL PROSECUTION PRESERVE THE EVIDENCE CHAIN FROM THE START LET TRAINED INVESTIGATORS HANDLE THE CONFRONTATION THIRD THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT IS THE MOST UNDERUSED PROTECTION IN AMERICAN CRIMINAL LAW WHAT A PERSON SAYS AFTER WAVING MIRANDA CAN BE MORE DAMAGING THAN ANYTHING THE CAMERAS RECORDED LET US KNOW IF THERE IS AN INTERACTION OR LEGAL TOPIC YOU WOULD LIKE DISCUSSED IN THE COMMENTS BELOW THANK YOU FOR WATCHING AND DO NOT FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE CONTENT ON POLICE AND COURT INTERACTIONS