Ormond Beach restaurant employee accused of stealing more than 30K in food and cash from business

ORMOND BEACH, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - An Ormond Beach business is out more than $30,000, and police say it’s because of a former employee.

Anthony Liang, 27, of Heathrow, is now facing a grand theft charge.  Investigators say Liang started working at the Red Bowl Asian Bistro, which is on Granada Boulevard, in October of last year and the thefts began just one month later.

“I’m just glad to know that they did catch him,” said Sandy Hadden, a restaurant customer.

The Ormond Beach Police investigation started at the end of last month.

Police say a manager realized Liang’s sales were much lower than other servers and then found several of his receipts had zeroes where the item’s price should have been.

Investigators say Liang told them he’d been offering some customers fake specials or discounts in the hopes of pocketing larger tips. The arrest report also says sometimes on bills paid in cash, Liang would “zero out certain food items and then pocket that amount.”

Police say Liang doesn’t know how much cash he stole but the food he didn’t charge was worth $32,751.

“Surprised,” said regular customer Mike Leonard. “That is a lot of money over the course of a year. “

Thursday it was business as usual at the Red Bowl. 

“We probably go here once a week and probably get take out once every other week,” Leonard explained.

He says even more community members may start eating here to help the business in the wake of this long term theft.

“That’s how we do it in Ormond Beach,” he went on to say.

Liang was arrested on October 31 and is no longer in jail. Our calls to him were not returned.