Gas station employee arrested; allegedly embezzled over $19,000

A gas station employee was arrested Monday morning on a grand larceny warrant, accusing her of embezzling more than $19,000 in operating funds by manipulating pump fees.

Devon Marie Cousins, 42, of Breckenridge Street in Pearcy, was arrested at her residence shortly before 11 a.m. She was served with a warrant for theft of property valued at over $5,000, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Cousins, who has no prior criminal record, was released later that afternoon on $3,500 bail and is scheduled to appear in Garland County District Court on July 5.

According to the probable cause affidavit, the district manager of Circle K gas stations reported to Hot Springs police on May 8 that he was conducting audits and discovered that an employee named Cousins, who worked at the 1675 Higdon Ferry Road location, had allegedly been stealing from the company since 2022.

He explained that the audit showed that Cousins ​​was conducting “tank checks” and then taking the money from the drawers. He noted that at that location, a large sum of money was earmarked for pump testing, but no gallons were associated with it.

“This is odd because you have to know how many gallons were used for the test to verify the monetary amount,” the affidavit states. The manager “began to investigate” and found that on many work days, Cousins ​​manually entered a “seemingly random” monetary value for the pump tests, but not the gallons used.

He contacted the company that does the pump testing and was told that they had only done one pump test in the past two years and that it had cost about $1,600. They also provided him with the relevant documentation.

The manager said he believed Cousins ​​stole money from the cash register and then added the amount of the pump fee to make up the difference “to make it look like the store didn’t lose any money.”

At the Higdon Ferry location, the loss for the store was estimated at $19,333.74 from May 3, 2023, to February 9, 2024. The manager noted that Cousins ​​had relocated from the Higdon Ferry location to the Pearcy store at 3544 Airport Road. He noted that after that, pump charges were discontinued at the Higdon Ferry location and resumed at the Pearcy location.

Due to the charges in that county, the Garland County Sheriff’s Office began investigating that location. Investigator Isaiah Mayo conducted an interview with Cousins ​​and after she was read her rights, Cousins ​​allegedly admitted that she had been stealing from the stores and used the pump tests to cover it up.

She reportedly denied the full amount demanded by Circle K, but admitted to stealing from both stores. A warrant was issued for her arrest on June 3.