Store clerk is charged with theft

BOARDMAN -- The Family Dollar clerk who reported being robbed of more than $3,000 in cash and checks from the store has been charged with theft in the crime.
Krista A. Wheatley, 21, of Aravesta Avenue, an employee at the Market Street store, reported Sunday afternoon that a man stuck an object in her lower back and demanded money while she was at Market and Hillman Avenue as she was walking to the bank. She said she gave the man the store's bank deposit bag.
She reported that the man then fled.
On Tuesday, the store's management notified police that Wheatley had admitted her part in the crime, a police report said.
Wheatley then told police that a female friend told her she was having money problems and proposed stealing money from the store. Wheatley said she initially hesitated but then agreed.
She said she left the store with the deposit bag Sunday afternoon and got into the other woman's car, which also was occupied by an older man. She left the money in the car and they drove around the neighborhood before the other woman dropped Wheatley off near the store.
Wheatley then told a cashier inside the store to call police, and she reported a robbery.
Later that night, the woman gave Wheatley $400 for her rent, adding that she hasn't seen the other woman since then, Wheatley told police.