Two workers at a Florida Popeyes are facing charges after authorities said they fraudulently charged customers’ credit cards while working the drive-thru.
Shaunta Johnson, 42, was arrested Wednesday on charges including including organized scheme to defraud, three counts of fraudulent use of a credit card, three counts of unlawful use of a two-way communication device, and three counts of fraudulent use of personal identification information, Flagler County Sheriff’s Office officials said Friday.
A second employee, 49-year-old Chaniqua Richberg, was arrested on similar charges back in April, authorities said.
The alleged crimes happened at a Palm Coast Popeyes where the pair worked.
Richberg had been arrested after authorities said a customer had reported that her card was tapped twice, once for her drive-thru order and then on a cellphone.
The customer later discovered an unauthorized charge of $311.90.
Authorities said Johnson orchestrated the scheme to make commissary payments to her boyfriend, an inmate at Apalachee Correctional Institution in Sneads, Florida.
Officials didn’t say how many customers fell victim to the scheme.
“Our detectives worked diligently to identify and arrest those responsible for defrauding unsuspecting Popeyes customers,” Flagler Sheriff Rick Staly said in a statement Friday. “Thanks to the cooperation of the new owners of Popeyes, we were able to put the missing pieces together and arrest the mastermind in this case, in addition to her associate, and hold them both accountable for their crimes. While they won’t be joining ‘friends’ who are already locked up in a prison cell, they are on a fast track to sleeping in a prison cell.”
Johnson has a lengthy criminal history that includes previous arrests for fraud, cocaine sales and possession, larceny, resisting arrest, destroying evidence, illegal use of a two-way communication device, and operating a childcare facility without a license, authorities said.
Richberg was previously convicted of fraud in an unrelated Pennsylvania case, officials said.
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