Yorktown, VA 23693
The owner of a swimming pool company claims a former employee gave customers a “returning customer cash discount” for several years and pocketed the money.
The former employee of Douglas Aquatics, 32-year-old John Phillip Cronk, was arrested Thursday and charged with 10 felony counts of embezzlement and five misdemeanor counts of embezzlement.
The owner reported the suspected embezzlement to the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office after she conducted an audit Nov. 1 of the retail department and found $91,687 worth of products missing.
Cronk, an employee since 2009 and a Yorktown resident, was the retail sales manager for Douglas Aquatics, according to a complaint filed in York-Poquoson General District Court on Thursday.
The owner told investigators Cronk was fired Oct. 15 for unrelated reasons. The day Cronk was fired, a customer complained about the cost of a product, telling the owner Cronk usually offered him a “returning customer cash discount,” court documents show.
The customer told the owner he never paid full price for pool chemicals. The owner looked at the customer’s transaction history but did not see any previous sales transactions, according to the report. A second customer came in a few days later and claimed Cronk offered her the same cash discount.
Another customer was able to produce a handwritten receipt for the purchase of a pool part that was valued at $1,001. The customer paid $614 for the part.
Upon watching store surveillance videos, the owner said she discovered Cronk took cash payments from customers, print receipts from old sales transactions and put the cash in the register drawer. Cronk would then throw away the receipt and give the customer a handwritten receipt. When the customer left, Cronk would remove the cash drawer and take it out of the camera’s view, returning it minutes later.
The owner then researched closing reports for Cronk’s daily sales based on the surveillance video.
After speaking with several customers, she found at least 15 instances of missing cash transactions. In each of the transactions, Cronk would sell products at a significantly lower price, giving discounts as high as $800.
No money has been recovered, Lt. Dennis Ivey with YPSO said.
Cronk has been released from jail on bail, according to court records. He will appear in York-Poquoson General District Court at 8:30 a.m. Nov. 17.
