An Ocala Taco Bell employee who claimed he needed money for his daughter’s first birthday cake was arrested Thursday after money was reported missing from a cash register.
A Marion County deputy went to the store at 13545 SW 17th Court after a manager called to report the crime. The manager showed the deputy surveillance footage from the night of June 30 showing an employee take cash from the drive-thru register and put it in his front pocket. The manager identified the man as 21-year-old Isaiah David Alexander, and she said he hadn’t been back to work since the night of the incident.
After being taken into custody at his residence at 2612 NE 22nd Ave., Alexander told the deputy he knew he was recorded on video taking the money, a sheriff’s office report states.
Alexander then admitted to hitting a button that automatically opens the cash register drawer, taking the money and putting it in his pocket, the report says, adding that he said it was to pay for a cake for his daughter’s first birthday party.
Alexander was booked into the Marion County Jail at 5:55 p.m. Thursday and charged with larceny/petit theft and two probation violations – one for a charge of trafficking in stolen property and the other for giving false information to a pawn broker on an item worth less than $300. His bond on the larceny charge was set at $1,000, but he was being held on the probation violations with no bond.
Alexander is scheduled to appear in a Marion County courtroom April 20 at 8 a.m. on the larceny charge and again 30 minutes later on the probation violation charges.
