RICHLAND, Wash.–A teller with HAPO Community Credit Union has been accused of taking $18,420 total from the accounts of three members without their permission.
The teller, Gabriela M. Perez, has pleaded not guilty to the charge of first-degree theft. A trial has been set for Oct. 23.
According to authorities, two of the alleged transactions by Perez took place just one minute apart on the same day in December 2016, the Tri County Herald reported. In the third transaction, a member noticed the missing money at night and immediately transferred remaining funds to another account, and then went into the credit union to report the problem the following morning after Perez, 21, called claiming she’d made an error, the Tri County Herald said.
Authorities said Perez was working at the Richland branch of HAPO Community CU when she allegedly withdrew $8,120 from the joint account of a mother and son. The account owners were not present in HAPO that day and did not provide a signature for the withdrawal, which also was not processed through a receipt management system as is credit union policy, the Tri County Herald said.
The members have confirmed both in a phone call and in a written affidavit that they did not authorize the transaction, the Herald said, saying the credit union has since made them whole. Other members affected have also signed documents making the same allegation.
It was a Dec. 27 transaction that brought the issue to the attention of the credit union, the Herald said. After Perez allegedly removed money from an account, she contacted the member the following morning to say she had made an error and posted a correction, according to the Herald. The member drove to the credit union and informed management of what had taken place regarding the $5,300 that had allegedly been taken from a checking account.
An audit of Perez’s teller drawer showed it was short $5,300, according to court documents.