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 ...
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She was moving on up ... until she landed in jail.
She donated it to the Human Fund. “Money for People.”
Yogi says don’t bother looking.
I can understand someone 20 trying this, but a 50 year old?
She had to know it wasn’t going to end up well.
I won the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes !
“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.”
Cooperating with police is not exactly one of black people’s strong points these days.
Especially when there’s money involved.
Her husband should have known better as well.
But, then maybe he did.
He gets a new engine for his truck and gets rid of a bitchy wife.
Double Bonus Points!
Ding, Ding, Ding
“A detective later contacted Coleman by phone, and she agreed to come in and talk about the situation.”
Anybody else think that was a little lazy on the detectives part?
I had something similar happen. The company I worked for way over paid me one week, but the timing and amount made it seem like possibly a bonus. So I started asking questions and found out no one knew why I got it. So I went to the bank and locked my account—and it was good that I did because the company tried to claw back twice what they paid me which would have taken every penny and then some. This led to some nasty phone calls accusing me of stealing and I calmly told them I would write them a check for the over payment. After about 2 weeks of this nonsense, I finally wrote them a check for about a third of the overpayment because thats what their payroll department determined was how much I was overpaid. The reason they were angry? I locked my account when I figured something wasn’t kosher.
“According to police, Coleman told her employer she had already spent the money fixing her husband’s semi-truck.”
When it’s all said and done, she will have spent the money on her employer’s new semi-truck.
EC
Reparations
White man owed me .
She may be jailed, but she could be unlikely to be convicted even if she keeps the money. State laws don’t always favor the over-payer.
Why does she have to return it? The employer can simply fire her, if she won’t return it. She very well could have spent it.
After all, it wasn’t HER error.
Seems like a civil matter to me.
The company should have take her to court and try to get a favorable judgment.
But jail? No.
$20,000 that will give her lawyer a goal post to go after.
Amen to that.
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