(Stillwater, Okla.) — An arrest warrant has been issued for a former manager of the Rent-A-Center store in Ponca City who is accused of embezzling $3,330.51 from the Stillwater store to gamble at a casino, court records showed today.
Robert Monroe Smith, 28, of Ponca City, was not in the Payne County Jail this morning, a sheriff’s spokesman said.
If convicted of stealing the money from the Stillwater store, Smith could be given a five-year prison term and a $5,000 fine, according to the felony charge filed in Payne County District Court last week.
Stillwater Police Officer Matt Smittle wrote in an affidavit that he was sent to the store on E. Sixth Street in Stillwater on March 31 to investigate an embezzlement.
The district manager for the Stillwater store said that “the manager of the Ponca City store, Robert Smith, had taken two deposits from the Stillwater store totaling $3,330.51,” the affidavit alleged.
Paperwork from the cash management department showed that the two deposits were entered in the “high touch POS” system the store uses, the affidavit said.
“The bank was unable to credit the account due to the cash deposits not being turned into the bank,” the affidavit said.
The district store manager “said he was on his way up to Stillwater on March 31, 2015, to investigate the missing deposits when he was contacted by Smith,” the affidavit alleged.
Smith told the district store manager that he had taken both deposits over the phone, the affidavit alleged.
Smith allegedly told the district store manager that “he had used the cash deposit to gamble at a casino and he was going to head west,” according to the affidavit.
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