Former O'Reilly Employee Charged with Burglary, Theft

Pierce County prosecutors have charged a Puyallup woman with second degree burglary and theft after she allegedly stole more than $3,400 from her former employer, in Bonney Lake. Bonnie C. Johnson is accused of staging an after-hours break-in at O’Reilly and stealing the money from the business safe. She was formally charged on Feb. 15.

According to the report, Bonney Lake police responded to a commercial burglary at O’Reilly at 4:36 a.m. on Jan. 2. Dispatch advised that Johnson was the responding party to the tripped alarm. When police arrived, the front doors of the building were secured, and neither set of doors showed any type of damage or forced entry.

After police were assured the building was secure, they approached Johnson in her vehicle and told her it was likely a false alarm. Johnson asked if they would check inside the building and offered her key.

As she tried to hand over the keys, officers noticed she was shaking terribly, fumbling and stuttering as she tried to open the door. The reporting officer found it ‘odd,’ and that he hadn’t encountered an employee who was ‘terrified or nervous’ when responding to a tripped alarm.

When officers checked the building, they couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. Johnson pointed out to them that the safe, which appeared closed, was not locked. Officers found the safe unsecured and while everything appeared orderly; Johnson advised that the daily deposits were missing from the second shelf.

The officers thought it was ‘extremely odd’ that someone would take the deposits and leave the bag of cash in the safe, and that the exterior doors showed no signs of forced entry into the safe. Johnson even found an undisturbed till with bills in it for the next business day. She determined that two days’ worth of deposits were all that was missing.

There was a security camera positioned to capture the area surrounding the safe, and Johnson led officers to the adjoining office to see the tapes, but found there was no tape in the VCR. Officers noticed that the VCR was contained in a locked metal box and the access door was open. The lock, like every other point of entry in the building, did not appear to be damaged or forced open.

At this point, officers came to the conclusion that whomever was involved was someone who had keys to the building, knew the safe combination and had a key to the security system.

Officers noted that Johnson’s vehicle had frost on the metal portions of her car, but not on the windows, which is odd if she had just woken up and responded to the crime immediately from her residence. The lack of frost indicated that the car had been running for some time. Johnson lived off Pioneer Ave. in Puyallup, which indicated to police that it should have taken her longer to get to O’Reilly, if she had indeed just arrived from her home. She said she was asleep, but officers noted that she was fully dressed, which was odd if she had just jumped out of bed. Johnson responded that the clothes were by her bed and she had ‘green lights the whole way,’ but officers told her that her story still did not make sense. She was stammering and appeared to police to be lying.

Johnson did not allow police to search her vehicle. She was detained in the police car uncuffed and was later released when police finished securing the scene. While officers were suspicious, they couldn’t hold her for any crime at that juncture.

The next day, the officers followed up with the business. The loss prevention officer for O’Reilly stated he interviewed Johnson about the incident and she told him that she doubted she would be able to pass a polygraph test if she was given one.

On Jan. 6, officers contacted Johnson for questioning about the incident at the Bonney Lake police station. She asked for a lawyer but didn’t have anyone to call or the funds to acquire one; the officers responded that they could not provide one for her since she hadn’t been arrested or charged for a crime. She was released without being questioned.

On Jan. 10, police received a search and seizure warrant for Johnson’s cell phone activity and received the phone records on Feb. 4. They found a series of phone calls from the security company on her cell phone, and traced her GPS coordinates when she received the calls. She was on the 19200 block of SR 410 when she received the calls, which meant she was not truthful when she said she was at home at the time of the call. Since she was in Bonney Lake at the time of the call, officers determined she was the one responsible for committing the theft.

On Feb. 9, police arrested Johnson at O’Reilly for burglary and theft. Initially, she denied that she said she was at home at the time of the burglary, then refused to speak any further to police and requested a lawyer. She declined to make a statement to police.

Johnson was transferred to Pierce County Jail and the case has been forwarded to the Pierce County felony prosecutor for review.