REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Officials here have charged a former Diebold service technician with embezzlement in connection with a late May incident in which the tech allegedly took $24,000 from an ATM owned by a Diebold client, a northern California credit union.
Diebold launched an internal investigation after several ATMs serviced by Kenneth Reyes came up short on funds, said Andrea Higgens, a detective with Redwood City's street crimes division. After Reyes confessed to taking money from the credit union ATM and other machines to help cover credit card debts, Diebold terminated him and contacted authorities in the three municipalities where they believe the thefts occurred.
No money was found when Redwood City authorities searched Reyes' home, but Diebold apparently recovered some of the missing cash from the company-owned van used by the technician.
Higgens said that Reyes, who signed a written confession, indicated that he wanted to pay back the money. "It was like a shell game. He was taking money from some ATMs to cover the money he'd taken from others. In his mind, he'd apparently convinced himself he was going to pay it all back somehow."
Reyes, a Diebold employee for the past three years, had no previous criminal record, Higgens said. He is still under investigation and could be charged with more thefts.
