Former Co-op employees charged with felony theft, conspiracy

Two former employees have been accused of stealing more than $50,000 from Big Horn Co-op over a 12-month period before their activities were detected in late August 2022.

Felony theft and conspiracy charges were filed Thursday, Dec. 1 against Eric James Stanley, 36, and Laurie Denise Barber, 30.  They were arrested Friday, Dec. 2 in Greybull and are currently being held in the Big Horn County Jail, with bond for each set at $25,000.

Court documents detail how Stanley and Barber, co-workers at the Greybull store, allegedly initiated 162 fraudulent returns and refunded to themselves $11,565 in cash and $38,674 in credit to their debit cards, totaling $50,139, between Aug. 26, 2021, and Aug. 17, 2022.

A man who identified himself as Big Horn Co-op’s system administrator tipped off authorities to the alleged scheme.  A female store manager had noticed a $315.98 refund that seemed suspicious. That led him to review surveillance footage, which allegedly showed Stanley and Barber refunding a debit card without an item actually being returned to the store.

Greybull police officers who executed search warrants of Stanley and Barber’s home and vehicles seized notebooks, debit cards and cell phones that were used in commission of the alleged crimes.  In the affidavit, Greybull officer Drew Patrick states, “From initial review of the security footage and documents provided by Big Horn Co-op, it appears that Stanley and Barber would enter item numbers associated with Co-op inventory into the computer and initiate a return of that item.  The returns did not appear to be connected to any legitimate purchase.

“In order to process the return, Stanley or Barber would then place a debit card into the card read er, finalizing the return of money onto that card. All of the returns between Aug. 26, 2021 and Aug. 17, 2022, completed by Stanley or Barber, match one of the debit cards found in their possession” on Aug. 25, 2022.

According to the affidavit, Stanley “admitted to conspiring and completing this theft with Barber,” saying they were doing it to “pay bills” and that more than $50,000 in losses “sounded correct.”  Barber admitted to being “the one in the duo to go into the computer and write item numbers down in her notebook to conduct the fraudulent returns later.”  

Data from their seized cell phones confirmed the conspiracy. The affidavit states, “There are multiple texts between Stanley and Barber, stating that one or the other should do a return on a particular day due to their manager being gone from the store.”

Stanley and Barber are facing the same felony theft charge, which alleges they “knowingly took or made an unauthorized transfers of an interest in the property of another person, with the purpose of depriving the other person of the property, and the value of the property was $1,000 or more.”

The maximum penalty for felony theft is up to 10 years imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $10,000.

The second felony charge, conspiracy to commit theft, carries the same maximum penalties. Each of them are alleged to have “agreed with one or more persons, that they or one of them would commit the crime of theft … and one or more of them  did an overt acct to effect the objective of the agreement.”

Stanley and Barber were arraigned in Fifth Judicial District Circuit Court on Monday.