State police arrested a Fayette County woman on charges she took a night bank deposit bag containing more than $1,000 from a Westmoreland County McDonald’s restaurant where she used to work, according to court papers.
Lisa A. Leasure, 42, of Champion, was charged with receiving stolen property and theft before Ligonier District Judge Denise Thiel. Police said Leasure was employed at the restaurant along Route 31 in Donegal Township.
Troopers said the restaurant manager reported Saturday than an overnight deposit bag for the 11 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday shift was missing from the restaurant’s safe.
Store surveillance cameras videotaped Leasure entering the room where the safe is located “numerous times, ” opening it and viewing its contents during her shift, Trooper Trent Thomas said. Late in Leasure’s shift she is seen removing the green bank bag that is labeled, “SAFE” from the safe, Thomas said.
When Thomas interviewed Leasure at her home Sunday, he said she admitted the theft.
“(Leasure) related she needed the money for bills because she was behind,” Thomas said.
According to Thomas, Leasure got up during the interview, went to a dresser and returned with the bank bag that still contained $722.
“She said she thought the bag contained about $1,000 (when she took it) and she had already spent some of the money,” Thomas wrote.
In February, another former employee at the same store, Cheryl A. Dahmen, 33, of Mineral Point, Cambria County, was charged by state police with two counts of theft for failing to deposit more than $10,000 in restaurant receipts that spanned a three-day period.
According to court dockets, Dahmen is serving a two-year sentence in the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program in connection with the incident. The program may end earlier if she meets all requirements, a judge ordered.
ARD is a probationary program for first-time, nonviolent offenders. If Dahmen completes it successfully, she can petition the courts to expunge her record.
Leasure could not be reached for comment. A preliminary hearing is scheduled Jan. 3.
