Anna Susan Kosak, bookkeeper for Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh, NC, was arrested for embezzling $348,975 from the independent bookstore.

As the only person who handled the business’s books, Kosak was able to write and cash checks she’d written to herself without anyone checking her work.

General manager Sarah Goddin said the missing funds were undetected because Kosak had kept the check amounts small, and had been stealing for a long period of time. When asked why Kosak would steal, Goddin mentioned that the bookkeeper had undergone gastric bypass surgery the previous year, which typically runs between $25,000 and $35,000.

Despite the suffering economy, Goddin insists the bookstore’s sales remained flat for the year. But thanks to the embezzlement charge, the owners will be more financially watchful than ever.

Victor Papagno Jr., 19-year veteran of the Naval Research Laboratory, recently pleaded guilty to the theft of more than $1.6 million in government property. As a computer administrator for the Navy research lab, Papagno had access to valuable hard drives, floppy disks and other computer hardware. With that level of access, it’s not surprising that he’d stolen over 19,709 pieces of equipment during his time there.

What is surprising is how federal authorities discovered the theft: Papagno’s wife tattled on him.

After Papagno was arrested on an unrelated domestic violence charge, his wife, Andrea, called his bosses and informed them she wanted the work stuff out of her house. When Navy officials didn’t realize what she was talking about, she claimed there was so much computer equipment lying around that some of it had to be stored at neighbors’ homes.

The equipment was quickly recovered, and officials say that no secret technological info had been breached in the theft. Private info of 14 contractors and employees who worked at the lab was found on CDs, but each party was contacted about the leak.

The discovery was made only three days after Papagno’s arrest for domestic violence. Since he was apprehended, his wife has dropped the charges.

New York prosecutors recently nabbed John Hoeffner, an account at Tishman Construction, for embezzling more than $2.8 million from the company’s coffers. Usually, when fraud strikes a company from within its ranks, employees alter the books to cover their tracks and they’re discovered months down the road.

That part was true for this case — when prosecutors noticed hundreds of thousands of dollars were being spent on Hoeffner’s girlfriend, who resided in Cali, Colombia, it was a red flag.

Here’s where things get interesting: When they scoured the company’s records, prosecutors found Hoeffner had altered checks made out to the Mr. John company — a legitimate vendor at Tishman Construction. Hoeffner created fake invoices from the company, made checks written to “Mr. John,” and had his supervisor sign them.

Once he’d gotten the needed signature, Hoeffner wrote in his last name after “Mr. John” and cashed the checks for his personal use.

Joseph Lord had $3,000 worth of scrap metal stolen from his machine shop. For some unexplained reason, he expected them to return and kept his loaded shot gun close at hand.

His wait paid off because the thieves returned a few days later, in broad daylight.

He probably did more damage to their 2008 F-250 pickup then what they stole from him. He shot out their tires, windshield and radiator — making their escape vehicle unusable.

With no vehicle, the thieves resorted to fleeing the crime on foot, but officers quickly tracked them down.

Lord told police he accomplished what he wanted: to disable the get-away vehicle. The officers weren’t too keen on his use of a weapon, even though they understood Lord’s frustration. They just don’t want anybody getting hurt over property.

The owner of the truck is charged with breaking and entering and theft, while his accomplice still has charges pending.

David Lenihan, former controller for Underwood Fruit & Warehouse Co., has a grocery list ripe with criminal charges:

• 22 federal counts of bank fraud
• Embezzling $1,512,000 from Underwood, and
• Stealing $979,000 from Washing Fruit and Produce Co.

The cherry on top is that Underwood is now suing its insurance company, Nationwide Agribusiness, for breach of contract. After Lenihan’s alleged theft, Nationwide provided Underwood with $500,000 – not nearly enough to make up for damages.

Nationwide argues the insurance claim shortchange is because of an “employee dishonesty” clause that Underwood’s situation fell under.

Since Lenihan’s theft didn’t occur when the company’s current policy was in force and Nationwide wasn’t notified quickly enough when the theft allegedly occurred, the insurance company says it should only be on the hook for the $500K payout.

Luckily, there’s some clarification as to why Lenihan went down the rotten path: He was the owner of several orchards that the company used in its operations.

Even though he was compensated as a controller, the fruit company deducted the costs of production and orchard grounds-keeping from his paychecks. Lenihan felt the deductions were too high and decided to skim extra funds off the company’s profit to make up the difference.

Apparently, Canadian-based doughnut franchise Tim Hortons doesn’t see a difference between handing out a 16-cent treat to a toddler and helping oneself to whatever’s in the cash register.

Nicole Lilliman, a single mother of four and long-time employee, was terminated for giving a frequent customer’s crying baby a "Timbit" (the Canadian version of a doughnut hole).

Lilliman said the act was out of the kindness of her heart, and she should have gone to her purse and gotten change, but the store was too busy for her to step away.

Breaking policy outright would be one thing, but the Timbits are often given out to children and dogs. District Manager Nicole Mitchell claimed that Lilliman’s case was very different, and that the treats given to children and pets are always "day-old and recycled." (If that isn’t downright appetizing, we don’t know what is.)

Eventually, franchise execs came around and demanded Lilliman have her job back, since it was the first time she’d given away a fresh Timbit instead of the day-old-scraps version.