BY MANYI ENO, STAFF WRITER
On Dec. 6, 2013, then senior mass communications major Zachary Woody was arrested on charges of felony theft by taking more than $500.
According to the incident report from Clarkesville Police, Woody admitted to stealing nearly $30,000 from The Copper Pot restaurant in Clarkesville where he was an employee.
Woody said this happened over a three year period while he was a student at Piedmont, and he was taking the money to pay off debt from school tuition, as well as car payments.
Woody was subsequently arrested after his interview with police on Dec. 6.
He graduated from Piedmont on Dec. 14, after posting bond on Dec. 7.
Jeffrey Lee Morris, owner of The Copper Pot, contacted police on Dec. 5 to discuss theft of money from the business.
Morris provided Clarkesville Police Investigator Danny Clouatre with financial reports that revealed the possibility of the source of the missing money after he suspected an employee was taking money from cash payments.
Morris noticed that, after comparing all the sales of all the servers in the restaurant, Woody appeared to have been adjusting the payments that were made.
Morris said that he believed Woody was taking cash from the customer’s payments and changing the sale in the computer register to reflect a much lower price.
According to the incident report, Woody admitted to taking money from customers’ cash payments.
Woody said in attempt to hide the theft, he would change the sale in the register to reflect a much lower total.
Woody claimed that he kept up with the amount for a while because he wanted to eventually pay Morris back.
Morris said that, after reviewing financial reports, he determined that Woody had taken approximately $25, 735.36 between Oct. 2011 and Dec. 2013.
The case is still under investigation.