Crime & Safety

Sonic Manager Charged in Thefts from Wexford, Richland Restaurants

Allegheny County District Attorney's office says no one else had access to keys or safes in three restaurants.

A manager at three restaurants in Wexford, Richland and Frazer is charged with stealing more than $13,000 from the drive-in eateries by failing to make bank deposits and pocketing the cash.

Dennis Craig Heaton, 30, of New Kensington, is being held in the Allegheny County Jail on $15,000 bond.  The Allegheny County District Attorney's office on Monday charged him with three counts of theft following an investigation that also involved police from the Northern Regional and Frazer departments, authorities said.

As an operations manager for the three Sonic restaurants, Heaton's responsibilities included depositing daily receipts from each location at , according to an affidavit filed by investigators to support his arrest.  He was the only person with keys to the restaurants and access to the safes there, the affidavit states.

Find out what's happening in Cranberrywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Representatives of Ferraccio Drive-In Restaurants, which franchises the Sonic restaurants, contacted police in July to report that daily deposits from the three restaurants were not being made on time -- sometimes as long as seven days late, according to the affidavit. Company officials told investigators that Heaton, in email exchanges with them, offered numerous excuses for making the late deposits.

Between June 27 and July 27, 10 deposits totaling $13,817 were not made to the bank as required, investigators said. Video tapes from the Richland and Sonic restaurants showed Heaton removing deposits from the safes there, according to the affidavit.

Find out what's happening in Cranberrywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Restaurant employees also told investigators that they'd seen Heaton removing the deposits from the restaurant safes in Richland and Wexford, the affidavit states.

Employees also said Heaton sent text messages and asked them in person to say if asked by company officials that their restaurant safes contained money to be deposited -- even when it did not, according to the affidavit.

A preliminary hearing is set for Friday before Magisterial District Judge Regis Welsh Jr.  


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.