By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
It was not a safe cracker, but an inside job when more than $1,000 went missing from the Visiting Nurses Thrift Shop the other day, according to the Centralia Police Department.
Police were called early Tuesday morning to the business on the 200 block of South Pearl Street about a burglary. Money was missing from a safe.
It quickly became apparent to detectives it was staged to look like a break-in, police Sgt. Stacy Denham said.
“The evidence didn’t line up that someone came in from the outside,” Denham said.
Investigating detectives came to conclude a 27-year-old employee who had worked for the business about three years was involved, according to police. When interviewed, he acknowledged what he did, Denham said.
Denham said an examination of the safe showed it was opened using the keypad and then the keypad was damaged after the safe was opened.
The money was not recovered, it had already been spent. The suspect said he needed the money, for bills, Denham said.
The 27-year-old Centralia man has not been arrested, but police are recommending to prosecutors that he be charged with burglary.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
That place is a joke to begin with! Too bad that’s all they took!