If you could guess how much you gave away to him alone, how much would you say? 40 thousand. $40,000? I think that's what it came to. On December 20th, 2023, officers were dispatched to a Winn-Dixie in reference to an ongoing scheme to defraud the business. Associate that's working at the service counter, um every day she works, she's giving a customer hundreds of dollars of lottery. So, like just taking the lottery tickets, bagging it, putting it and giving it to the customer and not taking payment. Uh she would also give them grocery products and then um also just sometimes she would buy tickets and she would cash it out without taking all the money. So, basically she was doing like three different types of scams, all with the same customer. I'm going to pause there cuz I know you're catching up. I'm sorry. Yeah. So, she would get she'd give them lottery tickets, sometimes grocery items, and then cash Yeah, so like like if they if they said it was like $40, he'd give her 20 and she'd say he gave her 40. So, that's a cash order for the register. So, like if she scans the tickets, then it's then it'll be a cash order, but if she just gives them the ticket, it's a bottle choice. So, it's kind of Okay. Yeah, so it gets a little bit crazy. Do you have like video of this? >> video, I have receipts. She would she would say things Yeah, let's go look I got that there where she's at right now, too, so Okay. I can pull if I'm on my laptop, so I can pull it out if you don't want to watch it with her >> Yeah, we'll we'll we'll go ahead and watch it without her. Okay. Um and that that way we have we have all that. Let me get your name. Yeah, absolutely. Nick. >> Uh Nicholas Johnston. And what's your title here? It's uh it's asset protection manager. So, it's just like Yeah. Fancy title for what I do. Okay. I got that if you need it. And that's my card for to pull it up. So, this what what's this the guy >> number is good. That's my cell phone. Yeah. Okay. It's my work phone and personal phone, so yeah. Yeah. I just started working there. Okay. I know you're writing and talking, so I'm trying to >> No, you're good. You're good. >> Um I do so I have all the videos, I have all the receipts. I do got to put them on the flash drive real quick, but they're on my computer. I just got to transfer the file. So, when did all this start? You know, September sometime? >> about September. We didn't catch on to it about till the early November. The store had like a high loss investigation. The store is horrible with shrinkage and all that stuff we do all the time. We're going to tell you guys that. So, they flagged so we started to keep down into everything and the lotto was like getting crazy. I was like, "Why is this lotto?" So, they weren't on process yet. So, it took us a while to like kind of actually discover where it was. So, the first one that I got video for Okay. I don't have video for everything right now because I just got as much as I could. >> You're you're working. Yeah, you you got you got So, I can work backwards for all of it. So, this is what we have confirmed. So, this is all merchandise loss and that's lotto loss. So, right now our total loss that we have on video confirmed is 6832. Okay. And what we're looking for though that she knows and we know based off of our reporting that it can only be from lotto, total including that is 23,252. So, she admits to this 20 23 whatever. So, we did So, even today before I got here cuz I was playing Santa Claus at another store, he came in and I said, "What would you give him today?" Four packs of cigarettes, two $50 lottos, two $30, five $20, 10 $10. So, I said, "Even just today you gave $700." Right? So, that kind of goes in line with all the totals that we have. So, I say, "So, if you So, she works five days a week." Yeah. >> "He comes in every day?" "Yep, every day, sometimes twice a day." So, I say, "So, you're you're really like $40,000, but that's not I'm not going to chase you for anything that I can prove. This is what I know I will be able to prove if needed." And that's what I have proven so far. Who is this guy to her? Does she >> just a customer. That's what I'm trying to figure out. He looks so familiar. >> won't even she won't even >> she doesn't know that he just when he cuz he tips everybody. So, he comes in and he like just tips everybody with money because he's getting free stuff. So, he just walks around, everybody loves him, he shakes hands, buys other people's groceries. They all love him, but he never uses a reward card. I do have one transaction where he used a debit card, but I can't get that information, so I'm going to try to work that with corporate to try to figure that out, but So, is this him? >> This guy This guy. I'm telling you he looks so familiar. I think he worked somewhere around here and like I I can't I can't figure it out. Do you know this is this is so she doesn't know this guy. This is just a customer that keeps coming in. This is the one that she keeps giving stuff to. This guy right here. Like I he never uses a reward card. Like she doesn't know his name or anything. But I know he We don't know his name. I should get it. So, look right there. Like he looks so familiar. I have no idea why. He's going to be he's somebody like it's >> He probably He probably works Well, but I don't see him in the store. I have 20 stores. I don't I wouldn't I wouldn't remember him. >> How tall is she? She's about 5 >> like 5 Well, I told her 5'4", but she's probably actually more like 5'7". Oh, she's what? So, you know who he is? Well, she She says she know him. Now, does somebody else up there know? Probably. I could ask, but I didn't get that far yet. But she's saying just well cuz he comes in and he gives her 20 bucks for when he gets winners and stuff like that. So, he smoozes her and Mhm. gets started. >> Well, why don't you give me that one? Why don't you give me that one? He looks so familiar now. Mhm. All right, so if we watch so he brings tickets that are almost always losers. I asked her I said, "Does he even get winners?" She's like, "Not really. He used to, but he doesn't because now he brings the winners to somewhere else with another real girl. So, if you watch, he'll just start giving them tickets and tickets and tickets. Do you have any cameras in the parking lot? I do. Yeah, two cameras. Can you see what kind of car he goes to? Yeah. I'm thinking a white Camry or a pickup truck. I'm going to say pickup truck. Huh? I think pickup truck. I'm thinking a gray pickup or a white Camry. >> I think he's in the area. Do you know who I'm thinking of? Let's say he's giving her money, tipping her money. So, that whole bag is for a lotto tickets that she he probably paid $40 for. I kind of guess I talked over that. So, all the Those were all tickets right there. So, it wasn't catching any of this over here? No, cuz he gives her 20 bucks right here, too. So, she he gave he gives her this money here. He tips everybody. He walks around handing out money like Santa Claus. So, nobody pays nobody you know, they're just talking and laughing, you know. So, he tips everybody. >> Yeah. Baggers would walk up and be like, "Here you go, you're doing a good job today." And they're like, "Oh, no, you thanks." So, that's why she's doing it because he's he just gives out money. Well, if I do this for you, you're going to give me Sometimes he gives them 40, 100 bucks. But it's our money that she's getting. Like he's getting the tickets and extra money and then he's just giving it back to us. I was like, "You're crazy." So, these are just some of the ones to show you. So, like for example, this one she he paid for her 60, but he got but she did a redemption for 60. So, he actually didn't pay for anything and she gave him like a couple hundred. But I want to show you some of these to where you know that it's like 100% legit, right? It's like this one with the take with the tobacco, she gave him eight packs of cigarettes, but only rang up the one pack of cigarettes. So, you know, we got like I I made it to where like there's no way she's not going to tell me anything, right? So, so and even on some of these where she brings up the $2, she brings up all the cheap ones. If she accidentally brings up a big one, she'll void it off. So, like right this one >> Oh, yeah. 100% she gave him a $50. Now, with our camera systems on the back of the big bills, it says 50, 20, 30, so I can tell the value of the bills cuz it says it right on the back of them. Not the bills, but the tickets. So, um you know, like this one she's voiding you know, voiding the cigarettes. She brings up a whole bunch of cigarettes, voids it off. This one actually this whole transaction doesn't show it on here, but she actually just voided that whole transaction. So, all the sweet potatoes, all this other stuff And then he would And then he'd give her cash, but she like it's not there's no money. It's all bottle choice. Okay. I mean, so so she's doing cash, she's doing lotto, and she's doing product. She's doing she's she's like trying to win the Olympics. So, like this one he rang she rings up $10, she rings up a 20 and a 50 cuz somebody walks by, but then she voids off those. So, he paid $10, but he probably got $500 worth of tickets, so So, if there's another employee back there, he'll wait for her. Oh, if there's customers, he'll wait. Like see how he So, if I zoom out right now, you can see her pulling tickets. Like just pulling all these tickets while he's talking to the customer, kind of blocking so nobody can see. And then the other manager is over here you were saying you know her. So, see how he's like talking to her to keep her distracted. And then when she goes over here to the register, you'll see that's when he calls her and gives her you know, "Hey, come here. Come here." And then he gives her the 20 bucks or See how he puts the money back there. He's like the 20 bucks across to her. Like this guy she he just gave this guy five bucks, too. Oh, here's cigarettes now. Giving him a whole stack. She rang up one cigarette. He just keeps pulling out money. He just keeps giving him money. It's like That's why they love him. That's why they You know, she's 19, 20 years old. 100 bucks is a lot of money. That's my number one question. What is going on that we got called here? You give away free product. You're giving away free product. Who are you giving away the free product to? Pretty sure his name is I He has an accent, so I don't know if it's Keish or Keith, but it's a customer. How did you meet Keith or Keish? Um he was one of my regulars. What's that? He's one of my regulars. >> Why do you give product away to him? I actually don't know. He He gives us tips, so I think that kind of persuades us to keep doing it. And how much does he normally give in like tips that A lot. Like he'll like one one time he gave me like $300 in a weekend. Like in one day? Or just like like >> then like three days. >> Did he ever tell you like, "Hey, I'm giving you this like can I get stuff free?" Okay. >> really. Try to like do a trade type thing. What all do you give him? You say you give him product. What what all do you give him? Scratch offs. What type of scratch offs? Like the lotto just the regular scratch off tickets and stuff. The bigger ones. And then tickets and stuff. And he'll come in and get beer and whatever, like stuff he needs. >> Like grocery items? Yeah. Does he ever question, like, "Hey, this I I I purchased three $50 scratch-off tickets and I gave you $20. Why is it so cheap?" Or Like, did he ever question me for it? No. Okay. So, he just once you give him the stuff, he just leaves after Does he give you the tip before or after you uh you ring him out or both? >> Yeah, yeah. Cuz like, today he did come in and I told them that you Same thing. He gave me $40 today, but usually like he'll come in, leave for like 3-4 hours, come back and leave and come back. Like, throughout the whole day. So, when he leaves and comes back, is he always purchasing like lottery tickets or beer? Any other items, like purchase cigarettes? >> Yeah, cigarettes, too. Have you ever met him outside of work? No. When did all this start? I think like September, October. Do you know of any other employees that are doing this? No. Does he always come see you at customer service or does he get rung up by anybody else in the store? Just me. So, today he gave you $40 and what did you give him today? Uh scratch-off tickets. I think he got beer, too. [Music] How many scratch-off tickets did you give him? A little. Not a lot, but it was a lot for him. Like, if you had to if you had to if you had to estimate how many you gave him, how many would you estimate that to be? More than one, more than five, more than 10? >> More than 10. More than 10? Yeah. Of the $50 ones? Not just feel like it's like a mixture, like two 50s, two 10s, two 20s or How are you deciding which scratch-offs you're you're just randomly grabbing them or I just grab Are they for specific ones? >> No, just random. Is he just How does How do you determine that he wants scratch-off Is he saying, "Hey, give me some scratch-offs" or >> I just He just asked for scratch-offs. And he never question, like, "Hey, I just gave you $40 and you gave me at least $200 worth of scratch-offs and I just gave you $40 and some beer." Okay. So, you said this happened since September, October area. Yeah. >> So, we're looking at 2 months, give or take a couple more days. Yeah. Maybe 3 months. How much have you If you could guess how much you gave away to him alone, how much would you say? Within the months? Sure. 40 thousand. $40,000? I think that's what it came to. Is he the only one that you give this stuff to? Yeah. If you had to estimate how much has he given you monetarily with these tips? >> Probably a little over a thousand within the months. Does he ever pay for anything? Yeah. When you ring him up? Like, what is he What is he paying for? Like, is he only paying for lower ticket items or is he paying like if he had a 20 >> So, you're only ringing that stuff up? >> Yeah, like the dollar ones and then I'd give him the bigger ones. So, you'd ring up like the dollar scratch-offs and then give him the 50. >> ones or like the dollar ones, too. Okay. Would he get any dollar scratch-off ones or you just Yeah, I'd give them, too. >> Oh. Oh, so he'd get both. Yeah. So, he'd pay for the one and I'd still give him what he paid for and then he'd get the dollar ones, too. Does he come in at a specific time? Does he like Is it same time every day or is it just random times? >> at random times. >> Okay. And you work You work the same schedule every week or is it >> Yeah. Okay. How did it start with him just At first it was just like he was like one of my regulars and I have a lot of them, so I talk to every single one and and then it just started escalating like um like he would start giving me tips, so like I think he kind of persuaded me just to keep giving him like higher tickets instead of just like, "Oh, I gave you a 10 an extra $10 ticket, but I'm only charging you for one." That's how it kind of started. But it just kept escalating from there. How much did he start tipping you? It was like 20 bucks here and there. And then it's escalated to whatever amount, 40, 50s. >> Yeah. Have you exchanged phone numbers, addresses? >> my phone number. He has Okay. Do you have his phone number? I think I do cuz I got it the like when he was starting to be my regular, a couple of a couple of places had it, so I thought it was okay. Has he ever called you on it? Yeah. What did he >> answer. Oh. Okay. I don't answer people. When he calls you or when he has called you, has it been in the daytime, evening hour? Probably evening. Does he leave you any messages? Yeah, he'll leave me voicemails. What do they What do they What do they say? Hey, girl, what's up? I hope you're enjoying this Saturday. Give me a call later on. Hope you have a nice day. I'll talk to you later. That's it. All right. All right. That was weird. Does he text you at all? I think he has before, but I went through my phone and deleted a bunch, but Did you just do that? No. I had to do a phone sweep cuz my storage was too full. Um Oh, here we go. What was he texting you? Um I can show you. I just recovered the messages. But he would Same thing, like, "Give me a call. Give me a call. Do you work? Give me a call." Same thing. >> And you respond to him? Yeah, it's just like at work. But then I was in the hospital. Okay. When he comes in, obviously, he's got these lottery tickets that may be winners. >> Right. Are they the lottery Do they look like the lottery tickets that you gave him? They're all different. >> Are there any others that you're like, "Ah, I don't remember giving these out"? I think maybe a couple. I know there's a couple that we don't have that he sometimes has, but I have no idea where else he goes. How quickly after you had given him the lottery tickets did he cash them back? Is it like Um same day. Yeah. Cuz like, he'll walk out Well, he's told me like he'll go drink a beer, scratch them in his car and then like if he has to do something, he'll go do something and then come back. Have you ever had him bring back tickets that had no winners on them? Yeah, he's brought back tickets with no winners. And you give him money for them or >> No. I would I would scan them to see like I don't know if they're winners until I scan them, obviously, but I would never like redeem money that wasn't won. Okay. Have you just given him new car new tickets because and you didn't charge him for them or >> It's not very often. Okay. Like today, he came in. He won He won $100, but it also had a stack like it was like one ticket that was a winner and a stack of losers. Uh-huh. So, I like I charged him for like one, but I still put in the that he won the $100. Was it actually a winner, though? Yeah, it was. What did you do with those tickets? They're in the trash. We always throw them away. Are they in the trash up front? Yeah, they haven't taken it out. They should still be in there. And you said a stack of losers. How many would you say that he turned in? I don't know. Seven. And you gave him the $100 that he won on the ticket and then you gave him more tickets. Yeah, so like I um I got scanned like a like couple one $1 ones and then I'd put in like he won the $100, which he did, and then let's say I scanned five of them, I gave him $95, not the whole hundred. Okay. So, out of the $100 he won, you gave him $95 back and then some tickets on top of it, but you don't know how many tickets you gave him. Okay. Is that Is that from everybody that's in >> Okay, it's it's it's So, like all the tickets that Scott scanned to include the losers would all be in the trash can. Right. I was But but they would be at her register only or the No, it's the main >> So, every ticket that's been there scanned and that's also been put in the trash can, so But what I'm thinking is if they need it later or if it's not needed, then need it or not. Cuz it wouldn't be tickets that I scanned. I'm pretty sure I threw them away and they're all still kind of in the stack here, but You ever get the lottery report later with all the serial numbers and everything like that? Oh, that's true. You can ask me. Um You want me to go grab them and I don't know what to do with them in the meantime. Yeah, and then we'll figure out if they want to do anything with them or not. >> In the end, the suspect was hit with 5 years of probation and ordered to pay $23,252 in restitution to Winn-Dixie, a costly scheme that didn't end the way she expected. Share your thoughts in the comments below and don't forget to like and subscribe for more stories caught on body cam.