HANCOCK COUNTY, Ind. — A Greenfield woman is accused of taking money from a self-serve stand corn stand over several weeks, resulting in a $2,000 loss for the business owner, allege court documents.
The police investigation began on September 4 when the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department spoke with the corn stand’s owner.
The owner told police she runs the self-serve stand with her family in front of their home on County Road 600 North. The stand works on the honor system, with customers expected to leave cash inside a money bin in the mailbox.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the owner told police she caught a woman taking money from the stand on her security video. She told police it happened at least twice.
The owner put the woman’s photo on Facebook and asked the community for help identifying the suspected thief.
Family members identified the woman as Teresa Kiner, 67, of Greenfield.
The owner told police Kiner herself called her on Sept. 3 and asked for her picture to be taken off of Facebook. She reportedly denied taking the money at first and then told the owner she returned $90 back to the money bin.
When police were handed over the security video from the stand, detectives say they counted 18 instances from Aug. 28 to Sept. 3 where Kiner allegedly took corn from the stand and then helped herself to money from the money bin.
I watched the videos and on all of them you can see what appears to be Teresa Kiner come up grab corn and place into plastic bag and then but her had into the mailbox with the money and on some occasions look like making change.
Detective’s account from probable cause affidavit
In one video, the woman can be heard counting the money, court documents state.
When police questioned Kiner, she told them she had only been to the corn stand three times in 2022. She told police her picture was on Facebook, falsely accusing her of stealing from the stand, according to court documents.
As the questioning continued, investigators say Kiner told she might have dementia since she is forgetful, and someone else in her family had it. Kiner also disclosed she has never received a dementia diagnosis.
Court documents show after Kiner was shown three videos of thefts from the corn stand, she told investigators, “I don’t need to see anymore”.
At that point, Kiner reportedly admitted to taking money from the mailbox and said she was sorry and would pay the money back.
Police came up with an estimate of anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000 being taken from the stand.
The owners said after looking at the numbers, they believed the total loss for the missing cash and corn was around $2,000 but could possibly be more.
Kiner was charged with 18 counts of theft.