Ex-Disney employee accused of stealing $112,000 from restaurant cash registers

ORLANDO, Fla. – Authorities say a former part-time Disney World employee is accused of taking more than $112,000 from cash registers while working as a hostess at a Magic Kingdom restaurant.

Jail records say Katie Marie Miller, 29, was booked into the Orange County Jail on Tuesday on charges of grand theft, scheme to defraud and making false statements. She remained in jail Thursday, and is being held on a $61,100 bond.

Disney financial analysts told deputies Miller stole an average of $5,000 a month from the Columbia Harbour House restaurant in Magic Kingdom for almost two years, according to the report.

The Orlando Sentinel reports Miller told investigators she started taking the money to help pay bills and it then became an addiction. She said she didn’t realize how much she’d taken until Disney’s financial analysts confronted her.

Disney's financial analysts told deputies they watched one night in March 2015, as Miller made numerous refunds for bills worth several hundred dollars each. She used various registers, sometimes logged in as other employees, and then would enter her personal code to approve the transactions.

Surveillance video from that night caught her putting cash from the registers in a bag and then walking to a back office, according to the arrest affidavit. The bag was later seen empty, deputies said.

Prosecutors issued a warrant for her arrest two months ago. She was arrested last month in Hopedale, Massachusetts, and brought to Orlando on Tuesday.

This story was originally published June 9, 2016 at 6:55 AM with the headline "Ex-Disney employee accused of stealing $112,000 from restaurant cash registers."