Bank Teller Steals $150,450 From Cash Drawer, Drains Elderly Customers’ Accounts To Conceal Theft: DOJ

A 28-year-old North Carolina bank teller will spend months in prison as well as pay tens of thousands of dollars in restitution after stealing from her employer and making unauthorized withdrawals from customer accounts.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Sarah Wilson embezzled $150,450 in cash from her teller drawer while working at First Citizens Bank.

Court documents say Wilson attempted to conceal her crimes by manipulating the bank’s financial records.

“To hide her theft, she entered numerous fraudulent transactions into the Bank’s computer system – fraudulent buy/sell transactions associated with the bank’s vault and fraudulent withdrawal transactions from the accounts of two elderly customers, then 89 years old and 90 years old, with whom Wilson was familiar.”

When the 89-year-old detected suspicious activity on his account and asked Wilson about it, she assured him that everything “looked fine.”

“By then, Wilson’s fraudulent entries had effectively depleted his savings and certificate of deposit accounts by $59,700.”

Wilson also drained $42,650 from the 90-year-old’s certificate of deposit account.

Wilson was fired from First Citizens Bank in May of 2024 following an investigation that revealed the extent of her theft.

Wilson, who started working as a teller at First Citizens Bank in December of 2023, pleaded guilty to three counts of embezzlement by a bank employee in August of 2025. Besides serving a 21-month prison sentence and 36 months of supervised release, Wilson will also be required to pay $150,450 in restitution.

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