A 63-year-old man named Kenneth Werkau used to work at a Walmart in Moundsville, West Virginia. Used to work, because during the last four months of 2019, Werkau stole $123,775 worth of gift cards to send to somebody he had never met!
Werkau would activate prepaid Mastercards and Xbox cards, saying they were paid for with cash, but put no cash in the register. Then, he'd send the gift cards to a woman he met through Facebook, who he had NEVER met in person.
Werkau told the police he was sending the gift cards to a woman named Paulina who lived in Belgium. Unfortunately, despite showing the cops a picture of Paulina, he determined she was not real.
The police told WTOV, "He was actually being scammed, [but] he believed it was real."
An investigation revealed that Werkau took about $15,000 a week from the registers. He is now facing up to 20 years in prison for three federal wire fraud charges.
