Louisiana Wendy’s manager, Linda Johnson, pocketed $20k in wages by creating a fake employee

Louisiana Wendy’s manager pocketed $20,000 in wages by creating a fake employee.

A former general manager of a Wendy’s restaurant in Pennsylvania who police said made up a fake employee so she could pocket their wages has been charged with theft by deception.

Linda Johnson created a “ghost employee” named William Bright, whom she clocked in and out at the outlet she managed in Lancaster, the Manheim Township Police Department said last week.

Manheim Township police spoke with employees at the Wendy’s, at 1117 Harrisburg Pike, and said no one knew a co-worker named William Brite. When police questioned Johnson in April, she allegedly admitted Bright was a ghost employee, whom she would clock in and out at the restaurant.

Paychecks for William Bright totaled $19,898 in gross pay, police said, and the total loss to the insurance company was $15,846.

Johnson, originally from Monroe, Louisiana, is wanted on a charge of theft by deception, but she has avoided arrest for several weeks, police said. Anyone with information on about her whereabouts can call Manheim Township police at (717) 569-6401.

Johnson kept up the scheme for close to a year, during which time she manually logged 128 shifts for the fake worker who was paid $19,898 between June 2021 and May last year, the police department said.

The restaurant found the “discrepancy” and contacted the police after an audit, a police spokesperson told Insider.