KeyBank teller allegedly stole $20,000
Toolbox
By Thatcher Moats Times Argus Staff - Published: January 12, 2009
BARRE – A Barre woman who worked at KeyBank is accused of stealing $20,000 from the bank and trying to hide the theft by reporting a robbery.
Melissa A. Fuller, 29, pleaded innocent last week to embezzlement and giving false information to a police officer, and faces over 10 years in prison if convicted. She was released on conditions after her arraignment in Vermont District Court in Barre.
Police were called to KeyBank on North Main Street in Barre after Fuller reported a bank robbery on Nov. 21, according to an affidavit written by Det. Larry Eastman of the Barre City Police Department. Fuller reported the alleged robbery an hour after it occurred, saying she was afraid to report it immediately for fear of the robber, the affidavit states.
She told police that a 50- to 60-year-old man with a black baseball cap and a plaid coat with no front teeth came to her teller window and demanded money, court records state. Fuller told police that she put the money on the counter and the bank robber picked it up and put it in his coat pocket.
Fuller examined surveillance video with police, but could not identify the robber, according to court papers.
A financial crimes investigator from KeyBank reviewed the tape and did not see at any time a large amount of cash being handed out to anyone at Fuller's window. Forty-four men went to Fuller's window that day, but none fit the description Fuller gave.
Fuller's manager at the bank, Gretchen Maginnis, told police that just prior to the robbery report, Fuller had been informed that she was going to be audited because she was going on vacation.
Fuller's area was audited the evening of the reported robbery, and was found to be $18,000 short.
Investigators found that $2,000 was also missing from the vault.
Eastman met with Fuller again and went over still photos of the men that came to her teller window that day. Fuller advised that none of the men in the photos was the robber, but she also denied allegations made by police.
"Melissa Fuller would not confess to this incident," Eastman wrote in his affidavit.
Eastman got a subpoena for Fuller's bank accounts and found that aside from her and her husband's paychecks, $20,131 in cash was deposited into her accounts in 2008.
From Jan. 8 through Nov. 14 of 2008, Fuller made 122 unaccounted-for cash deposits, according to the affidavit. They ranged from 75 cents to $650. Most of the deposits were made in Fuller's checking account using the ATM machine, court records state.
"This amount is very close to the amount missing from the bank," Eastman wrote.
When Eastman confronted her about the extra $20,000, Fuller gave several explanations. She said her husband did extra work on the side. She said she sold some coffee machines to women at the bank. She also said she had been doing "well" with scratch tickets, winning $50 to $100 every time she played, according to court records.
Eastman checked with the man who employed Fuller's husband, who reported that he paid Kevin Fuller less than $2,000 over the last year.
The four coffee machines were sold for about $70 each and the director of security at the Vermont Lottery had no winnings reported for Melissa or Kevin Fuller, according to police.
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