The closing manager of a fast food restaurant allegedly stole $800 from the business because someone purporting to be a U.S. Marshal contacted her via voice and text stating she would be arrested unless she provided the money.
The case began with another manager reporting the missing funds to Camden Police Department (CPD) officers on Jan. 13. That manager, along with another one, discovered the money had been stolen out of the restaurant’s cash registers -- that had been locked in a safe -- sometime during closing early that morning. They then reviewed camera footage and could see the closing manager walking into the restaurant’s office and the leaving a short time later with a brown envelope.
Officers contacted the closing manager by phone and claimed that if she told anyone what was going on, she would be taken to prison. However, she agreed to meet with officers at police headquarters. It was during the subsequent interview with detectives that the woman revealed her claim that a U.S. Marshal had gotten in touch with her.
The woman said the “marshal” had her transfer the $800 to a “green dot” card at the Pilot gas station in Lugoff and then drop the cards off at the main U.S. Post Office back in Camden. The woman also provided officers with pictures sent to her by the “marshal” including one of a U.S. Marshal badge.
No arrests were made at the time the report was filed, which listed the case as one of extortion or blackmail.
The CPD also reported the following recent incidents:
A 19-year-old Camden man said someone driving a small green older model vehicle shot at him several times on Brookgreen Court after following him from where he works at Springdale Plaza around 10:15 p.m. Jan. 14. The man told officers that a man had been in his store earlier asking odd questions and, before leaving, said he would just see the victim after work. On his way home, the victim noticed the vehicle following him without its headlights on. He said he turned onto Fairlawn Drive off East DeKalb Street and then onto Brookgreen Court. At that point, he heard what he said were five or six gunshots and believed the occupant of the suspicious vehicle was shooting at him. Police spoke with several residents who all reported hearing the gunshots.
Officers arrested a 62-year-old east Camden man on a charge of second-degree assault late on the night of Jan. 15 for allegedly assaulting a 37-year-old Camden woman at her mother’s King Street residence during an argument over whether or not to take her reportedly sick mother to the hospital. According to a CPD report, the man allegedly punched her in the face and then used a stick to strike the side of her face and back of her head. The victim declined to be taken to the hospital despite reportedly suffering some type of seizure and losing consciousness.
A 16-year-old girl walking to school along Chesnut Ferry Road Extension said she was accosted by four young men on Jan. 24 thought to be between 19 and 25 years old. Although they demanded her phone and bookbag, she said they did not take anything. She said they didn’t hit her, but did shove her between each other.
On Jan. 16, Camden Middle School suspended three male students, ages 13, 13 and 14, pending expulsion hearings after the smell of marijuana led to the discovery that one of the students had stolen marijuana from his father and sold it to the other two students for $20 at the school, according to a CPD report.
Officers are investigating two automobile break-ins on Commerce Alley and one on nearby Rutledge Street that took place either late at night on Jan. 15 or during the early morning hours on Jan. 16.
Someone broke into several vehicles on Commerce Alley and Rutledge Street during the overnight hours of Jan. 15 and 16.
A detainee broke a sprinkler head at the Kershaw County Detention Center because he was “bored.”
