Ex-Chop Shop employee faces prison after stealing $300,000, prosecutors say
A former employee accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a well-known Bradenton butcher shop is facing prison time, according to court records.
Felicia Stivers, 52, pleaded no contest Wednesday to fraud charges after investigators say she siphoned as much as $300,000 from The Chop Shop, a local specialty butcher shop and longtime Manatee County staple in West Bradenton.
Under Florida law, scheming to defraud $50,000 or more is a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
An attorney representing Stivers did not immediately respond to the Bradenton Herald’s request for comment.
Investigation finds years of theft
Detectives said they first began investigating Stivers in March 2024 after the shop’s owner reported suspicious transactions to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.
According to an arrest report, the owner discovered a pattern of cash reverses in the store’s system dating back to 2022. After a closer review, deputies said the losses were estimated to be between $150,000 and $300,000 over two years.
When the owner checked surveillance video from Feb. 28 through March 14, 2024, she told deputies the footage appeared to show Stivers pocketing around $6,000 from the business.
Investigators said Stivers admitted she had stolen money when confronted but claimed the amounts presented by the owner were a “shock” and insisted she did not take “anywhere near” the alleged total.
The owner told detectives the theft went undetected for so long because of the trust she placed in Stivers, who had worked as a cashier at The Chop Shop for about three years, according to an arrest report. Stivers was responsible for payroll, bank runs and cash reverses, and she and the owner were the only two employees authorized to perform those reversals, deputies said.
The Desoto County Sheriff’s Office arrested Stivers in June 2024. She was released the following day after posting bond and later appeared in a Manatee County courtroom, where she initially pleaded not guilty, according to court records.
Court records show a second, lesser fraud charge filed in the case was dropped by prosecutors. Stivers is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 12 by Circuit Judge Matt Whyte.
