Sanger gas station employees caught on camera embezzling thousands

SANGER, Calif. (KFSN) -- At the busiest gas station in Sanger, there are over 2,000 transactions a day.

The owners of the Fastrip have to run a tight ship and this month they found major leaks.

When the store profits started tanking in August, they turned to receipts and surveillance videos and found it was an inside job.

An employee at the Fastrip store in Sanger and an ex-employee worked in conjunction to steal cash, gasoline, and some alcohol.

A customer would pay for an item and the employee would void the transaction. Afterward, instead of putting the money in the register, she handed it to an accomplice.

"I've seen cases like this where this goes on for months and months and the dollar amount could skyrocket," Sgt. Jason Boust with the Sanger Police Department said. "But this business owner had very good security measures in place."

Sanger Police arrested Erika Rivas and Gabriel Martinez for embezzlement and fraud.

The amount of cash stolen totaled about $10,000.

In the video, you can see Rivas blatantly giving away bottles of high-end liquor to Martinez after hours.

She had requested the graveyard shift in a note and the owners said they wanted to help her because she had to support kids.

"I think people see the cash in the register, fall upon hard times, and just make a bad decision," Boust said.

The owners said their store's never been robbed and this theft wasn't just about money but the betrayal of trust.