I own an automobile and truck sales and repair business in a small Indiana town. I have several repair technicians working in the shop and two women working in the office on alternate days. I personally am in and out a lot and not always on site. I can keep an eye on things through my iPhone. All transactions, inventory and emails can be monitored through apps on my personal phone.
One day in late March 2020, I was on my sales lot and noticed an email alert on my phone. When I went to open it, it had been deleted. What I was able to read before it was deleted was the email title. It was an email from my credit card company. I immediately got another email from the card company. This time the title was asking to verify a credit card transaction. Again, when I tried to open it, it was already deleted. I looked in the ‘trash’ folder of the email folders and they were deleted from there also.
It was Bethany’s day to work in the office. She was a petite 40-year-old woman with strawberry blonde shoulder-length hair. She worked three days a week for me, but her main job was as a dispatcher for the county police department on third shift. She needed the added hours of working part-time for me to make ends meet as a single parent of a teenager.
I called Bethany and asked her if she knew what was going on with the credit card and emails. Bethany immediately said she knew about the credit card transaction. She said she had to order a software update for our computer. I asked about the emails from the credit card company, and about them being deleted. She said she knew nothing about any emails.
I was a bit sceptical. It seemed very odd to me that emails would just disappear. I contacted the credit card company and verified there was an $856 charge to my card to a computer company. I was still sceptical that a software update for my business was $856.
Within a couple of days, I had my answer. I was able to trace the credit card transaction online. It was for a new lap-top computer, and it was shipped to Bethany’s address and paid for by my card with her authorization of the purchase.
I called Bethany into my office at the end of the day and asked her about the purchase.
She swore it was for the software.
I showed her the print-out from the credit card company. It was for a lap-top computer that was sent to her address. There was really no disputing it. I really didn’t know how she didn’t think I would find out.
She finally admitted it was for a lap-top for her son. She rudely said I was rich and it shouldn’t be a big deal. She could borrow the cash from her mom and pay me back. I told her what she had done was theft. Charging personal purchases to a company credit card and shipping to your home address is theft. I planned to have her arrested. I was sick of people stealing from me.
Bethany was irate that I wanted to have her arrested. She said I didn’t have Jennifer, a former employee, arrested when she stole from me. Why would I have her arrested?
She was referring to an incident several years before which is listed on this website.
She said Jennifer stole from me and I didn’t have her arrested. All she did was pay the money back. Bethany knew Jennifer and she said Jennifer was bragging about it one day about how she took money from here and how I caught her. She just paid it back and all was forgotten. Bethany said she knew Jennifer wasn’t arrested because she worked at the Sheriff Department and she would have known.
I told her not exactly. I went to my filing cabinet and pulled a document from a file. It was the document Jennifer had typed admitting she stole money and agreeing to a spanking with a belt instead of going to jail. I handed it to Bethany to read.
Jennifer hadn’t wanted her kids to know their mother was arrested for stealing. I had asked Jennifer if she knew of any way she could take responsibility for her actions rather than being arrested. She couldn’t come up with anything. She said she had stolen something when she was a teenager and her mom ‘beat her ass real good’. She said her mom beating her ass was better than the store owner calling the police. She concluded in not so many words, that what was better then would have to be better now. A spanking was the only punishment Jennifer could come up with that allowed her to take responsibility for stealing but keep it from the public and her kids.
Bethany thought it was the most absurd thing she had ever heard. And, at the time, I thought it was absurd also, but that is what Jennifer demanded. It was not my plan, it was Jennifer’s, I told Bethany. I had planned to have Jennifer arrested; she suggested a spanking instead of jail. So, simply paying back what was stolen and all was forgotten was not the case. Jennifer had lied to Bethany about that. I suspected that because Bethany thought Jennifer stole from my business and had no consequences, then she felt no risk in stealing from me either, I told her.
I told Bethany that since she already admitted using the company card for personal use that I would have no issues getting her arrested.
She said she accepted being fired, and was willing to pay the money back, but she didn’t want me calling the police. Not only would she likely be arrested, but she would also lose her full-time job at the Sheriff Department.
I told her I was sorry, but I had to have her arrested. Stealing over $800 with no consequences was not going to happen.
Bethany said to just give her what Jennifer got and get it over with. She couldn’t afford to get arrested and lose her other job.
I told her I would rather not do that. It wasn’t the right or ethical thing to do.
Bethany frantically demanded an alternative to arrest.
“I’ll do anything. Just give me an option other than being arrested. Give me a waver to sign. I’ll sign it. Let’s get it over with now.”
I again refused. I didn’t think it was a good idea with Jennifer, and that was eight years or more in the past. I for sure didn’t think it was a good idea now. Letting the police deal with it was the easiest way out from my point of view, I told her.
Bethany persisted. She didn’t want to lose her other job. She didn’t want the matter being in the local newspapers. She said again that she could borrow the money from her mom and pay me back in the morning.
I finally agreed, as much as I disagreed with it. I told her that Jennifer got 20 with the belt on her bare bottom, as best as I recalled it, but that she could leave her panties on to get this over with.
Bethany was shocked, but realized she was between a rock and a hard place. She asked if there was anything else, other than being arrested.
I told her it was the one or the other.
She then stood up and said that she didn’t really have a choice. She would go type a statement like Jennifer signed. She returned a few minutes later and threw it on my desk.
She was worried I would still have her arrested even after I signed our agreement, but I managed to reassure her.
I pulled an office chair out from the desk and placed it in front of her. I told her to bend over and put her elbows on the seat of the chair, then to lower her slacks.
Bethany was one of the most petite women I had ever known. She was only about five feet tall and probably not much over 100 lbs. She was wearing a blue V-neck blouse and khaki pants.
“Do I really have to do this?” she asked. “Really? Like, bend over and take down my pants? I really hate to take my pants down in front of you.”
I told her I hated having money stolen from me, and that it was her choice; that or the police.
Bethany turned and faced the chair. She paused a moment before she slowly unbuttoned and unzipped her tight-fitting khaki pants. Then she just kinda stood there.
“Go ahead and take them down,” I told her. “It is nothing sexual, just the best way to get my point across. Now bend over and put your elbows on the seat of the chair.”
She slowly pushed her pants down off her small hips and round bottom, and they fell to her ankles. She had on blue ‘boy short’ type panties that matched her blouse.
At this point, I recalled the old adage ‘do not spank or discipline while mad’. I was definitely going against these words of wisdom. I was so mad at Bethany I couldn’t hardly think straight. Stealing 800$ was bad enough but I was irate at the fact she thought it was no big deal because she thought I was ‘rich’.
I reached down to my waist, unbuckled my belt and pulled it through the loops. It was a two-inch wide black leather belt passed on to me by my father. I folded the belt double in my right hand and raised it. I forcefully swung it and landed it squarely on her panty-covered butt. She screamed when it landed. I put my left hand on her back to hold her in place and gave her four more swats as fast as I could and even harder than the first one. With every stroke she would scream and swear.
I regrouped a second or two and then whipped her another five times as fast and as hard as possible.
She broke free from my grasp, stood up and turned to face me to block my swats. She had tears running down her face and her make-up was badly messed up. She pleaded for me not to continue.
I had kinda lost count. I told her she had ten left. If she wanted to quite and deal with the police, then that was fine. If not, she should turn back around and bend back over. She immediately turned around and bent over. The two-inch-wide strap was wrapping around her small panty-covered ass and hitting her side with nearly every stroke. I again tried to hold her firmly with my left hand and gave her five more hard strokes. With each stroke, she screamed and cursed.
After I finally managed to apply the last five strokes, Bethany quickly stood up. She turned around and told me she hated me, in between sobs.
I demanded my keys and told her to make sure she had my money repaid in the morning.
She pulled up her tight khaki pants, but didn’t bother buttoning them, dug in her purse and threw the key at me. Her make-up and eye shadow had run down her face. She stomped out and slammed the door behind her.
The next morning, $856 was left in my night deposit box.
SJ