Police: Employee burglarizes boss

Published 5:18 pm Monday, December 5, 2011

A Brewton man is behind bars after police say he admitted to burglarizing his boss’s vehicle last week.

Matthew Thompson, 28, has been charged with burglary of a vehicle and Brewton Police say other charges may be pending in the case.

Brewton Police Sgt. Steven Ferguson said the burglary was reported to police last Tuesday and an investigation lead to the arrest of the Thompson as a suspect in the case.

“The owner of the vehicle, who also owns an area business, said he noticed a box with money from his business was missing when he returned to his vehicle at Walmart last week,” Ferguson said. “He told us he noticed an employee of his business in a vehicle behind him as he pulled into the parking lot.”

Ferguson said the victim explained that only he and the other employee would have known his patterns and where he placed the money each day.

“We went to Walmart and looked at security tape from the day of the burglary,” Ferguson said. “We saw the vehicle described by the victim as the one the suspect was in at the time. As we watched the tape, we saw the driver of the vehicle get out of the car and go into the store. The passenger, who is the suspect, got out of the car and went to the victim’s vehicle. After a few minutes, the suspect got out of the victim’s vehicle and ran back to the vehicle he was a passenger in.”

Ferguson said as they continued their investigation, officers made contact with Thompson to question him about the burglary.

“During our interview he admitted that he did go into the vehicle and took the money,” Ferguson said. “Thompson told us he used the money to pay old bills and threw the box that contained the money over a bridge somewhere in the county.”

Thompson was transported to the Escambia County Detention Center where he was booked on the charges. An investigation continues in the case.