46-year old Randolf Turner, the manager of a Wendy’s restaurant in Michigan, is accused of stealing more than 32 tons of bacon from his employer over the last four years.
The man would have elaborated a complex plot to divert for his personal use, from 20 to 250 kilograms of meat per week, from shipments destined to his branch of the restaurant chain.
The man allegedly took advantage of his position to falsify orders and sales in order to hide the disappearance of the bacon from the company accounts and used his knowledge and control of the security cameras to be able to retrieve his loot without appearing on the tapes.
The company would have started to suspect Mr. Turner in December 2013 after an anonymous denunciation, and had some new security cameras installed without informing him.
Over the next few weeks, they captured incriminating images of the manager taking 10-kilogram bags of bacon and leaving with them on a regular basis.
They then interrogated a few of the branch’s employees and understood that clearly, something shady was going on.
The company’s legal department then took the decision to transfer the case and the evidence to the police, who rapidly arrested the accused.
Mr. Turner now faces multiple criminal charges of embezzlement, fraud, and larceny, and faces a sentence of up to 88 years in prison if found guilty on all charges.
The accused has already been fired by for his employer as soon as the arrest took place. The corporation explained the decision to lay him off, by the fact that the events constitute a “major breach of trust” between Wendy’s and Mr. Turner.
More and more cases of bacon theft have been reported over the country over the last years, and the police seem powerless to explain or to stop this new crime spree.
On February 3, 21-year old Gaige Lee Joyner was arrested by the Salisbury Police after he threw several cases of the tasty treat over a fence at Hendrix BBQ.
In another case, 61-year old David Brown from Romford was arrested for stealing 14 packs of bacon from a grocery store in Ilford in February.
He pleaded guilty on March 24 and was handed the 12-month conditional discharge.
