Arkansas McDonald’s manager accused of stealing $760 through payroll-card scam. She allegedly used a spare card to clone a teenage worker’s account

An Arkansas McDonald’s manager is accused of taking $760 from an employee’s payroll debit card. The alleged method of doing so was to get a second card and then link that to the employee’s account. The employee was away on business when the money went missing, having just been deposited into their account barely 30 minutes earlier.

As per Wealth of Geeks, the police got involved following the employee reporting that money had gone missing from their account. A detective met the employee and their parents in Brookland, Arkansas to go over the withdrawals which had been made without authorisation.

The employee had been away when their scheduled wages came through. When they went to check their account they were completely out of pocket (all $760 gone). Two ATM withdrawals at a bank in Paragould (a bank in the nearby town) had taken the balance, both apparently in the space of 30 minutes of each other.

Employees allegedly found her going through one of their purses

Investigators immediately started looking at the restaurant’s management. The employee told the police that a manager (Carcione) had helped them get their payroll debits set up when they first started at McDonald’s.

That wasn’t the only reason Carcione was under suspicion though. Colleagues reportedly told the investigators that they’d seen her going through the employee’s purse a few days prior to the money going missing. She’d allegedly said she was just putting the employee’s keys in.

Police also got surveillance photos from the ATM where the withdrawals occurred. Carcione was allegedly the individual picked out in the photos as making the transactions. The bank records, though, gave a much clearer account of how the alleged theft had been perpetrated.

The judge set a $35,000 bond

The debit card used to draw the funds was not the card originally issued to the employee. Carcione is alleged to have obtained a blank, unissued payroll card and linked that to the employee’s account without their knowledge. Her level of managerial access is said to have enabled her to do this without having to take or use the employee’s actual card.

The discovery raises questions about how the employee’s funds could have been accessed through a second card without their knowledge. Carcione is due back in court on December 16, with the judge setting a cash-or-surety bond of $35,000.

The allegations against her have yet to be tested in court. Investigators are expected to present ATM surveillance photographs, bank records and accounts from coworkers as part of their case.