A Golden Gate day-care center employee was arrested Friday after deputies say she stole $400 from the facility’s lock box.Dawn Marie Bagnoli, 29, of 2528 Santa Barbara Blvd., was charged with grand theft.
Her arrest came after the owner of Bottles, Blocks and Books, 2772 Santa Barbara Blvd., contacted deputies Tuesday and reported a consistent shortage in her lock box money. She said cash had routinely come up missing from the box since about October and estimated that the shortage totaled around $2,000. She told deputies she had installed a security camera, and on Monday it produced video of Bagnoli standing on a chair, reaching into the box and taking money.
On Friday at 8:30 a.m. deputies baited the box with $400 and monitored a live feed of the security camera from a computer at the Golden Gate substation. They used an IP address provided by the business owner to access the video. Twenty minutes later they watched as Bagnoli twice reached into the box. They confronted her in the parking lot and she was arrested. All of the bait money was recovered.
