Manager at Las Vegas Smith’s store accused of stealing over $140K in cash

A manager at a Las Vegas Smith’s Food & Drug store is accused of stealing more than $100,000 in cash, according to an arrest report from the Metropolitan Police Department.

A district manager for Smith’s at 2540 S. Maryland Parkway told police that customer service manager Mackenzie Gilles admitted to stealing roughly $89,000 since December, the report stated.

But Smith’s conducted an audit on Feb. 21 and found that the store was short approximately $122,407 in cash.

Gilles’ duties include withdrawing and depositing cash in the store’s “cash in/out machine” and depositing that cash into a safe or into the self-checkout machines or numbered cash registers during her shift.

The store’s district manager told authorities that in order to make a withdrawal or deposit, a fingerprint is used to gain access to the funds. The report states that police were informed that between Dec. 22 and March 8 , a total of $142,000 was taken.

After pulling reports for self-checkout machines, the “cash in/out machine” and the safe, the store’s loss prevention specialist narrowed the search on the store’s cameras to Gilles, who was allegedly observed on the footage making withdrawals from the self-checkout machines and placing the money into a blue cash bag similar to those used in a bank.

The report states that once Gilles had the money in hand, she would then walk to an area without surveillance and spend between 30 seconds and 2 minutes in the area before proceeding to the safe.

Similarly, the specialist told police that Gilles would also withdraw money from the “cash in/out machine,” which requires fingerprint access, then stop in the same area without surveillance footage for between 30 seconds and 2 minutes before emerging out of the area and back into view of the camera.

The report states that the specialist told police that when they interviewed Gilles about the missing money and presented her with the evidence they had, Gilles “immediately admitted to taking a large amount of money but estimated it was approximately $89,000.”

Gilles told Las Vegas police that she began taking money from the store “due to having financial struggles and being the only person working in her household,” the report stated.

Gilles, who reported she is a mother of five children, told police that she would take $100 bills from the self-checkout machines and proceed to the area where the safe is located.

Police wrote in the report that Gilles told officers she used the money to pay bills and said she “did not have any more of the money, indicating it had all been spent.”