TAVARES, Florida—The general manager of a Tavares sub shop is in the Lake County Jail accused of stealing cash from an elderly customer’s purse, she mistakenly left behind.
Tavares Police Department responded to Jimmy John’s, 458 East Burleigh Boulevard shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday on a report of a missing purse, according to an arrest affidavit.
The victim told TPD she stopped in the restaurant on her way home at approximately 7 p.m. Friday and when she arrived home, she realized she had left her purse at the restaurant. She called Jimmy John’s and was told the purse would be held in the safe for her to pick up on Saturday.
The victim arrived at the restaurant Saturday and was informed the general manager, Tonya Lynne White, of Tavares, had removed the purse from the safe and dropped it off at Tavares Police Department, however, officers did not receive any calls in reference to a purse, according to the affidavit.
The on-duty manager told an officer she found the purse shortly after the victim left and she and another coworker looked inside the purse attempting to find identification. They found a white envelope that contained a large amount of cash – $1,200 all in $100 denominations— in addition to $120 in a separate pocket, and the manager said she counted it for documentation purposes. She then placed it in the safe that is only accessible by managers, the affidavit states.
The on-duty manager arrived at work on Saturday, along with general manager, White, 48, and she informed White of the found purse. White told her she was going to take the purse to Tavares Police Department because of the large amount of cash, and “liability purposes.”
The manager provided text messages to TPD backing up her story.
A second officer contacted White by phone, and she told the officer she dropped the purse off at TPD. The officer told White no one had collected a purse, nor did they receive any calls for service in regard to a purse. White was “adamant” she dropped the purse off and created a story about a fictitious elderly woman in a flowered dress that flagged her down from the double doors of the public safety complex. Video surveillance showed White was never there.
White agreed to meet officers at the public safety complex and upon meeting, she provided a sworn written statement recounting her version of the story. She signed the statement was warned that fabricating a police report was a crime and would result in a criminal charge.
One of the officers began questioning White about inconsistencies in her initial story and her written statement and she ultimately confessed she took the elderly woman’s purse. She said she had $1,300 cash on her but threw the purse away at a gas station in Apopka, the affidavit states.
She removed $1,300 cash from her phone case, bra and purse and gave it to officers. Her purse was searched and a large amount a cash was found; White said most of it was her paycheck, but $180 was taken from the Jimmy John’s store. She claimed she took that money to trade it for smaller denominations, the affidavit states.
White was arrested for petit theft, grand theft, providing false information to law enforcement, tampering with evidence and theft from a person over 65. She was booked into LCJ, where she remains on $8,000 bond.
