LEDGEVIEW, WI (WTAQ) – A former long-time employee of Uncle Mike’s Bake Shoppe has been arrested for allegedly stealing over $10,000 from the business.
According to the criminal complaint, three officers with the Brown County Sheriff’s Department pretended to be customers and used marked bills to buy bakery items from cake decorator Connie Huven.
That came after owner Mary Vande Walle’s son saw Huven stealing money by watching surveillance video.
“He found one of my decorators up in the till and she was waiting on customers and she’d set the money alongside the register and then give the change back to the customer and she would stick the $20 bill into her pocket,” Mary Vande Walle told FOX 11.
The complaint goes on to say the officers took Huven outside Thursday and started to ask her questions.
Officers searched Huven, found all three of the marked bills, and arrested her.
“Our trust factor totally got ruined. We trusted everybody,” Vande Walle said.
The criminal complaint says Huven admitted to officers, “I have been stealing money from my employer for a long time…somewhere between 16 to 18 months.”
“Everybody’s like family that works for us and you wouldn’t expect that from your family,” said Vande Walle.
Huven went on to say, “I knew and know that this was the wrong thing to do.”
Huven also told officers, “I steal, on average, about $40 to $80 in cash per day.”
Court documents show Huven admitted to stealing no more than $28,800 and she took the money to pay for medical and other bills.
If convicted, Huven faces up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.
