A Chick-fil-A worker got fired and returned to allegedly refund himself over $80,000 in mac n cheese

The 23-year-old former Chick-fil-A employee in Grapevine, Texas, has been arrested and charged with multiple felonies after allegedly stealing more than $80,000 from a franchise location using a fraudulent refund scheme, and authorities say it was all caught on camera.

Jones was fired from the Dallas-suburb location in October 2025. But the following month, detectives reviewed surveillance footage and found Jones behind the counter without authorization. There, prosecutors allege, Jones began using the restaurant’s register to ring up roughly 800 orders of macaroni and cheese trays, all before he issued refunds to his personal credit cards.

Authorities have not said how Jones was able to access the register after his termination—for which no reason was provided in court records explaining why he was let go.

The franchise owner alerted detectives on Nov. 29, directing them to the CCTV footage, identifying the man as Jones, and explaining he had his direct deposit set up through Navy Federal Credit Union prior to his firing.

A spokesperson from Chick-Fil-A told Fortune the company was cooperating with authorities in the investigation.

Grapevine Police did not respond to Fortune’s requests for comment. Public records show Jones was charged with property theft, money laundering, and evading arrest.

According to public records, Jones is being held on $50,000 bail apiece for charges of money laundering and property theft. He is also being held on $5,000 each for evading arrest and fraud, an additional $1,500 for property theft, bringing the total he is held on bond to $111,500.

A warrant was issued for Jones’s arrest on April 6. He evaded authorities multiple times before being taken into custody on April 17, 2026, with assistance from the Texas Attorney General’s Fugitive Task Force and the Fort Worth Police Department. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in state prison under Texas law.

Jones’s lawyer didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cheesy fast-food schemes

Fast food chains have seen a range of such incidents in recent years. In Jan. 2026, a McDonald’s employee in Springtown, Texas was arrested after allegedly double-charging drive-thru customers by tapping their cards a second time with a personal device, and pocketed an extra $10 to $20 per transaction.

In 2023, a general manager at a Mancino’s Pizza and Grinders location was convicted of embezzling $130,000 from the customer loyalty program. In December of that same year, employees at Burger King and Wendy’s locations in Mobile, Alabama were arrested in separate credit card theft cases. And in October, 10 employees at an Indiana Hardee’s location were caught stealing $15,000 from customers through a card scheme.