A Jefferson City woman has pleaded guilty in connection with an identity theft case from April 2019.
Jacqueline Dryden, 57, pleaded guilty during a hearing before Cole County Associate Circuit Judge Cotton Walker to misdemeanor fraudulent use of a credit device.
A felony charge of identity theft was dismissed by prosecutors.
Dryden was placed on two years of unsupervised probation and ordered to pay restitution of $6,075.
Dryden, who was working as a cashier at Lowe's on Missouri Boulevard, printed off a temporary store credit card for a customer who did not have his card with him, according to a Jefferson City Police Department probable cause statement.
Dryden memorized the customer's name, date of birth and last four digits of his Social Security number to reprint another temporary credit card under the man's Lowe's account.
Authorities said Dryden then worked with another cashier to charge $6,000 onto another store's gift cards using the temporary Lowe's credit card she had created on the victim's account.
When questioned, Dryden reportedly confessed to using the victim's personal information to create the temporary credit card and loaded money onto the other store's gift cards to buy groceries and catch up on her bills. Dryden said something had gone wrong with the transaction and a receipt did not print. She also said she did not think any money had gone onto the gift cards and she threw them away.
A Lowe's loss prevention officer said the money was put onto to the other store's gift cards, but they were never used. The officer also said Lowe's would refund the victim's account and the company would take the loss.