{"id":12550,"date":"2025-10-20T16:40:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T16:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/12550\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T16:40:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T16:40:16","slug":"popeyes-worker-used-customer-credit-cards-to-fund-boyfriend-in-jail-fl-cops-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/12550\/","title":{"rendered":"Popeyes worker used customer credit cards to fund boyfriend in jail, FL cops say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760978416_390_image\" style=\"display:none\" alt=\"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=0QeysH_15pNDLNQ00\" width=\"1140\" height=\"610\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Fried chicken lovers visiting a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/flaglersheriff\/posts\/pfbid02dKsoPsiPTeNrMQSaMquAU58jJovHjFocdB2unhAoYdf5b6DDvWDswzgu6v5Bi1Tsl\">Popeyes drive-thru<\/a> in Florida were unwittingly paying a prison inmate\u2019s commissary fees, according to investigators.<\/p>\n<p>It was happening at the Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen in Palm Coast, and two women are accused of orchestrating the fraud, the Flagler County Sheriff\u2019s Office said in an Oct. 17 news release.<\/p>\n<p>They scheme was motivated by a desire to help 42-year-old Shaunta Johnson\u2019s boyfriend, who is in prison, the sheriff\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDetectives determined that Johnson and her coworker and close friend, Chaniqua Richberg, 49, of Palm Coast, fraudulently charged customer credit cards while working the Popeyes drive-thru,\u201d the sheriff\u2019s office reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJohnson orchestrated the scheme to make commissary payments to her boyfriend, an inmate at Apalachee Correctional Institution, West Unit, in Sneads, Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Investigators did not report how many victims were involved, but one woman reported her credit card had an unauthorized <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/flaglersheriff\/posts\/pfbid0CftDtvNdLQbNRJRwbSYaAXS9Qwwy2JNhkcFN6sTGU66jRrRDHV52tjYpagsaKqXel\">charge of $311.90<\/a> after visiting the restaurant in March, deputies said.<\/p>\n<p>The scheme came to light when the restaurant franchise came under new ownership, deputies said. The resulting investigation lasted seven months.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson was arrested Oct. 15 and faces \u201cmultiple felony charges, including organized scheme to defraud, three counts of fraudulent use of a credit card, three counts of unlawful use of a two-way communication device, and three counts of fraudulent use of personal identification information,\u201d deputies said.<\/p>\n<p>Richberg was arrested in April and charged with \u201cfraudulent use of a credit card, unlawful use of a two-way communication device, and fraudulent use of personal identification information,\u201d the sheriff\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n<p>Prisoners are not allowed to keep money behind bars, but cash can be provided by family members to a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prisonfellowship.org\/resources\/training-resources\/in-prison\/faq-prison-commissary\/\">commissary fund<\/a> used to buy food, toiletries and other minor needs, according to the Prison Fellowship.<\/p>\n<p>Palm Coast is about a 65-mile drive south from Jacksonville.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/news\/state\/florida\/article312569768.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">School teacher calls 911 to report she just killed her child, Florida cops say<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/news\/state\/florida\/article298500063.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oblivious suspect uses stolen credit card for 33 Domino\u2019s Pizza orders, Florida cops say<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/news\/state\/florida\/article305485476.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Slow service at McDonald\u2019s ends with \u2018irritated\u2019 customer arrested, FL cops say<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fried chicken lovers visiting a Popeyes drive-thru in Florida were unwittingly paying a prison inmate\u2019s commissary fees, according&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[749,11386,28,30,29,266,4541,748,11385],"class_list":{"0":"post-12550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-fl-cops-say","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-miami-herald","15":"tag-newsbreak","16":"tag-popeyes-worker-used-customer-credit-cards-to-fund-boyfriend-in-jail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}