Whataburger worker steals customer’s card to pay her court fees, Georgia police say
A Whataburger employee is accused of swiping a customer’s card information to cover her own legal fees, according to Georgia authorities.
The 25-year-old from Newnan is wanted on charges of identity theft and financial transaction card fraud stemming from the Jan. 31 incident in the burger chain’s drive thru, the Senoia Police Department said in a Feb. 24 news release.
She allegedly took the customer’s debit card as payment then “disappeared for a couple minutes,” police said.
McClatchy News reached out to Whataburger for comment Feb. 25 and was awaiting a response.
Officers said the woman was already on probation from a drug charge when she stole the customer’s card information, which she used to pay probation fines and fees.
The Whataburger customer noticed a $400 charge payable to the Coweta County State Court Probation Office, police said. He then contacted the court and police to report the unauthorized charge.
Authorities later identified the Whataburger employee as the suspect, and the victim was able to pick her out of a photo line up, according to police.
Authorities secured warrants for her arrest on charges related to the card theft and her probation violation, police said in the release.
After she was made aware of the charges, the woman agreed to turn herself in Feb. 21, according to authorities. She failed to do so, however, and stopped answering calls from police.
Family members told officers she went to Florida on ”a trip that was supposedly planned before the charges against her were filed,” authorities said.s
Senoia is about a 40-mile drive southwest from downtown Atlanta.
This story was originally published February 25, 2025 at 11:30 AM with the headline "Whataburger worker steals customer’s card to pay her court fees, Georgia police say."