Longtime State College staple Baby’s Burgers and Shakes nearly closed its doors after a former manager stole almost $80,000 from the restaurant. But Cassandra “Tassie” Lopez has now been sentenced and Baby’s is looking toward the future.
Last August, Lopez, 55, of Philipsburg, was charged with theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception and receiving stolen property.
“She had us down far. We were about ready to give up,” said co-owner Fred Wood.
Wood initially reported to State College police last July that he suspected one of his employees was stealing money from the business after noticing an occasion where $650 was to have been deposited into the bank, but only $450 was actually deposited. He said that Lopez was responsible for making bank deposits.
According to a criminal complaint, Wood conducted an audit and reported to police on Aug. 14 that $79,661.21 was stolen between February 2016 and July 2018. He believed Lopez stole $13,221.86 in 2016, $42,641.74 in 2017 and $23,797.61 in 2018 before she was fired in July, police said.
On May 17, Lopez entered a guilty plea to theft by unlawful taking, a misdemeanor of the first degree, in a plea agreement. On July 19 she was sentenced to in-home detention for a period of 30 days, followed by probation for two years. Deputy District Attorney Sean Mc-Graw said that as a pre-condition to her plea, she was required to make restitution in the amount of $30,000 on the day of sentencing, which she did.
She was further required to make restitution in the amount of $50,000 to an insurance company that had reimbursed the victim for losses suffered in that amount.
McGraw said that the plea agreement was reached in an effort to obtain full restitution for the victim in an expedited fashion while ensuring that the defendant is deterred from further criminal activity by having sustained a conviction for a theft offense and serving a term of confinement on house arrest followed by two years of supervision.
Co-owners Denise and Fred Wood said they are glad to put the case behind them and move forward. Fred said the restitution will help them get back on track and move Baby’s toward the future.
“The restitution, we will put towards continuing business and keeping the restaurant going,” said Wood.
In an impact statement the Woods said her actions not only affected them, but the whole team at Baby’s.
“Tassie’s deception decision not only greatly impacted our finances over these many years, it also impacted the lives of the many loyal Baby’s employees. We obviously have been unable to increase the income of the wait staff, cooks, shift supervisors or assistant managers. Unfortunately under Tassie’s leadership we never realized a net profit even while the gross sales rose to nearly one million dollars per year. Her decision to run us into the red each month seriously limited our ability to offer competitive wages to our present employees, or hire new ones at the competitive market rate. During her tenure she used every opportunity to manipulate our efforts to find out why we were falling farther and farther behind,” said the Woods in their statement.
“We know how much money we can prove was taken for at least a three-year period. Those documents only reflected our daily cash banking. We will never know exactly how much money or food was taken because our disappointment with her unexpected actions eliminated our wishes to dive further into any other areas which could have been easily used for her personal gain and deception. The one thing we can prove is that she stole our trust in the human spirit, and destroyed our respect for Cassandra Lopez. It may take many years to recover Baby’s financial position but we may never be able to recover emotionally from this devastating event.”
