Another Target employee accused of embezzlement

Demonica Valencia, 20, of San Felipe Pueblo, was summoned for embezzlement of over $2,500 Dec. 14 at the Target on Ridgecrest Drive.

The Target Loss Prevention manager told officers that on Nov. 20 she was stopped by a customer near the guest services desk who informed her that they did not receive a promotional gift card from a transaction the previous day. She assisted the customer and gave them a new gift card. She then returned to the assets protection office to run a “metadata” search from the original transaction that the gift card was missing from. The manager said she then learned that on Nov. 13 Valencia was seen on a check lane where an unknown man is seen getting in line and presenting health and beauty and grocery items. She then scanned each item and placed them into Target bags. She said Valencia was then seen going back through and changing the prices on all the items, making them appear to be cheaper in value. The manager stated the man in the video was then seen using a debit card to complete the purchase with the falsified prices.

She said Valencia repeated this process several more times between November and December for a total of seven incidents. The manager told officers that the company was going to pull Valencia off the line when the next transaction was observed. The manager wrote to officers via email Dec. 11, saying Valencia would be pulled that day for questioning.

On the Dec. 13, officers made contact with Valencia via phone and she agreed to come to the police department for an interview.

Valencia said she was hired in November as a cashier and it started shortly after, saying she usually worked the weekends and had either Tuesday and Wednesday off or Wednesday and Thursday off. When officers asked what she was doing when she was working the register, she said she was changing the prices for her family and her boyfriend. Valencia said she would edit the price by changing the percentage of the total and later learned she could change the price of the item to something else. She said she did it so they would not have to pay a lot for what they got. She added that she just wanted to help them and she did not think it would get this far and that she didn’t think her employer would catch on to it.

She said the items were mostly clothing and food items. Officers said they noticed some of the items were baby items, and they were told her sister has a child so she helped her get formula because she does not have a job. The other items were a car seat for the same baby and food for her house. Police asked her who was coming into the store and collecting the items that she would change the price on, and Valencia said said her sister and her boyfriend would. They asked her if at any time her family asked her to do this and she stated “no.”

If convicted, Valencia will face up to a year in jail.