Fired Chick-fil-A Worker Jailed in $80K Mac Scheme
Fired Chick-fil-A Worker Jailed in $80K Mac Scheme
The News
Keyshun Jones, 23, is serving a three-year prison sentence after admitting he stole more than $80,000 from a Chick-fil-A in Grapevine, Texas, by ringing up roughly 800 fake macaroni and cheese catering orders and refunding them to credit cards he controlled.
Jones told the New York Post he picked mac and cheese for a simple reason: it is one of the chain's most expensive items, with a catering tray running about $100.
He had already been fired when he did it. Investigators say surveillance footage showed him walking into the restaurant he no longer worked at and using an unattended register.
Timeline
Jones, recently fired after what he says were seven years with the chain, comes back to the Grapevine restaurant to eat with friends, spots an unattended register and starts processing phony catering orders, according to his own account and police.
The restaurant's owner reports suspicious refund activity, triggering a months-long investigation, Fox 4 reported via Cleveland.com.
Jones is arrested. Authorities said the charges included theft, money laundering and evading arrest, according to Cleveland.com's account of the case.
Prosecutors had sought 10 years for fraud and property theft; Jones and his lawyer bargain it down to three years, minus time served.
Jones gives an interview from the Tarrant County jail.
Reactions
"As good and delicious as our mac and cheese is, it is unfortunately one of our most expensive items," Jones said when asked why he chose that side.
He rejected the idea that he planned it. "Everyone thinks it was more premeditated, 'Oh, I went in there with a plan.' That was definitely not the case," he told the Post. "I let anger, as most people do, let anger and those feelings get in the way, and I went, and I made a bad decision."
On the plea deal: "My attorney spoke with the DA, and we kind of explained everything. We all came to an agreement where it wasn't one of those heinous acts."
His wife, Keana Jones, defended him to the Post: "He's a sweet boy."
The owner of the Grapevine Chick-fil-A declined to comment.
What's Next
Jones says he wants parole soon and hopes to work at Chick-fil-A again — while conceding the chain probably won't take him back.
"I love Chick-Fil-A. Chick-Fil-A is my career. I've been there since I was 15 years old, it was my first job. And I hated that things had to end that way," he said.
"I'm not what the internet claims me to be. I'm goofy. I'm fun. I'm kind-spirited," he added. "Hopefully I can show the rest of the world that I'm worth that second chance."
More
The fraud worked because Chick-fil-A's catering menu carries much higher ticket prices than its counter items — a $100 tray, run 800 times, adds up fast. The scheme was not exotic; it was a point-of-sale refund pushed to a personal card, the kind of loss retailers usually catch only when someone audits the refund log.
One detail Jones volunteered from jail: the mac and cheese has followed him. "There was just one time they did serve mac & cheese here. The irony of it all," he said.
Sources: New York Post (exclusive interview), Cleveland.com, PennLive.
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