Linda Diane Bruss

WARSAW — A Warsaw woman was arrested after stealing over $11,000 from Warsaw Orthodontics.

Linda Diane Bruss, 52, 215 Pimlico Drive, Warsaw, is being charged with theft, a level 6 felony.

On Aug. 22, 2018, an officer with the Indiana State Police met with a Warsaw Orthodontics office manager. The manager advised that a female, later identified as Bruss, started employment at Warsaw Orthodontics in May 2017 as a financial coordinator. While employed with the company, Bruss’s primary function was handling patients’ insurance. The manager advised that she and Bruss are the only employees that handle insurance claims.

According to the affidavit of probable cause, on Aug. 9, Bruss was sick and did not come to work. That day, the manager counted checks that had been received for payment and noticed that a check for $1,500 received on Aug. 6 was missing. The manager contacted the patient, who advised they had paid $1,500 in cash and produced the receipt.

The manager checked further into the software program and discovered that the $1,500 payment had been logged as a check and the cash had not been deposited into the bank. Upon further investigation, the manager found where 42 patients had made cash payments that had been logged in as checks with the cash not deposited. The software requires an employee to initial who entered the data. Bruss’s initials were on the transactions.

The financial loss for Warsaw Orthodontics totaled $11,851.

Bruss was booked in the Kosciusko County Jail Feb. 6, 2019, with a $15,000 surety and cash bond.