How Did a ‘Ghost’ Steal $20,000 From Wendy’s in Monroe, Louisiana?

Monroe, Louisiana—Authorities are trying to summon a woman back to Wendy's after she vanished with $20K. A Louisiana woman is being accused of stealing nearly $20,000 from Wendy's fast food chain she was employed as their general manager. Even we have to admit that her method of carrying out this crime was clever, to say the least.

Linda Johnson, age 35, allegedly created a fake employee she would manually clock in when she would arrive at work for her shift. She collected this 'ghost employee' paycheck for about a year.

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The General Manager Was Reported For Fraud

She worked as the general manager at the Monroe, Louisiana Wendy's located at 1117 Harrisburg Pike in Manheim Township. The owners told police that Johnson had committed fraud by creating an employee that has never worked at their location a single day and that she was "personally collecting that employee's wages".

The 'Ghost Employee'

After digging through financial records to find answers to this accusation, they found a record of William Bright who made $19,898.15 over the course of 22 pay periods starting on June 28th,2021 to May 1, 2022. There was never a William Bright actually ever employed at the business.

Following this discovery, investigators found that because Linda Johnson was the general manager she had the sole capability of manually clocking in employees on their behalf including the one she made up. Johnson entered a total of 128 shifts for this 'ghost employee', William Bright.

Turns out William Bright is a real person that Johnson actually knows in real life, but as previously stated, he was never employed by Wendy's in Monroe, Louisiana.

Police Spoke With Johnson, But Now They Can't Find Her

Back in April of this year, 2023, she admitted to her crime and said the fraudulent paychecks were sent to her Cash App account. She did mention that her only motive was to better care for her children. However, Linda Johnson was charged on July 7th with "one count of theft by deception" and is now nowhere to be found.

Manheim Township police are asking that anyone with any information should contact them at 717-569-6401