Posted on 04/11/2026 4:43:15 AM PDT by dennisw
An Arkansas woman is accused of holding onto nearly $20,000 that her employer accidentally paid her — and refusing to give it back.
Rene Nichole Coleman, 50, is facing a felony theft charge after she was mistakenly paid $1,650 an hour for a 12-hour shift at her now-former job with Superior Senior Care, an in-home care company in Jonesboro, a city north of Memphis.
Coleman normally earned $16.50 an hour before a payroll glitch suddenly sent her pay skyrocketing.
Rene Nichole Coleman, 50, faces a felony theft charge after police say she kept $19,388 that her employer accidentally paid her.
On May 10, 2025, she received an additional $19,388 into her bank account, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by USA Today in August 2025.
Her employer later caught the mistake and demanded the money back, but Coleman allegedly refused to return the cash.
According to police, Coleman told her employer she had already spent the money fixing her husband’s semi-truck.
Investigators say she did not provide further details about where the money went.
A detective later contacted Coleman by phone, and she agreed to come in and talk about the situation.
She never showed up, according to the affidavit.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
She may just think it’s part of her reparations.
Lol
WAIT UNTIL SHE HAS TO FILE HER TAXES!!!!!!!!!
SHE KNEW IT WAS AN ERROR....
Yes, it was a mistake. No, it wasn't hers to keep. By keeping it, once she learned of the mistake and being asked to return it, she's committed felony theft.
"paid $1,650 an hour for a 12-hour shift"

Gotta find the meme of the Bobs: “We fixed the glitch”.
Sadly in this instance they fixed the glitch too late.
Files da taxes? Huh? Ain't got no time for dat.
A decade or so back, had a coworker who was a mid wage worker, received the Year end bonus that was actually for the VP of the company. He didn’t question it and immediately put in for vacation and went on a fancy cruise with his wife.
When they discovered the error he was not fired, but had spent all the bonus money. He had to do payroll deduction until it was paid back. HR department was a bunch of clueless nincompoops so it was not surprising.
I would think the business would have a hard time recovering that from her. She didn’t steal that money. They gave it to her for work performed, and then tried to come back on her for it at a later date. There’s a big difference. I think with the right lawyer, she’s home free.
I got a really expensive mower from Lowes one time for 1/3 the price. The correct price was clearly marked, they loaded it on my trailer, and I headed down the road. But, they only charged my credit card less than half price. When we got home, we got a call from Lowe’s telling us we owed them money or the mower, and told me that if I didn’t get right with them, I committed theft. I told them good luck proving it, because they gave me that mower for what I paid them. I didn’t steal it. I never heard from them again.
The correct price was clearly marked, they loaded it on my trailer, and I headed down the road. But, they only charged my credit card less than half price.
Morally, you failed the test.
Fire her because they fooked up? Good luck floating that one in front of a judge!
No, morally, I just got reimbursed for all the crappy lumber I was overcharged for over the years. It's called "karma."
No, morally, I just got reimbursed for all the crappy lumber I was overcharged for over the years. It’s called “karma.”
In my book it is theft when you don’t keep your agreement.
Do you understand what morals are? You do understand justification though. They are not the same.
She is one of them.
My eighth-grade math teacher (public school) stated that if you are accidentally given too much change at the cash register —and you see it and don’t correct the error by returning the overage— then you are stealing.
I am surprised at some of the responses on this thread.
Typos happen, my former company send billions to some supplier by the way of typo.
Luckily the supplier was honest and they worked it out eventually. But it was huge boo boo.
This woman is stupid.
If she worked it out with the company, everybody would be happy and she would likely got some bonus.
This way, she lost her job, nobody will hire her, and she’s got lawsuit pending.
Basically she screw her life for 19 grands.
How come a government bureaucrat doesn’t get arrested when They “accidentally “ take more than they are owed in taxes?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.