It was a side hustle, a mac-and-cheese caper and, as the authorities in Texas tell it, illegal.
A month after being fired from a Chick-fil-A franchise in Grapevine, Texas, last fall, a former employee returned one night and began processing phony refunds for food items to his personal credit cards at a cash register, investigators said this week.
Well, one menu item in particular, the authorities said: Eight hundred trays of gooey mac-and-cheese that are featured on the fast food chain’s catering menu.
“A classic macaroni-and-cheese recipe featuring a special blend of cheeses including Cheddar, Parmesan and Romano,” says a description on the chain’s website for the mac-and-cheese, a popular comfort food, which also comes in individual portions.
By the time the former employee, whom the authorities identified as Keyshun Jones, 23, had carried out his ruse, he had bilked the Chick-fil-A franchise out of $80,000, the Grapevine Police Department said in a statement on Tuesday.
A manhunt finally led to the arrest of Mr. Jones, on April 17. The police said he had evaded law enforcement officers on multiple occasions after the investigators discovered the fraud.
A task force for fugitives operated by the Texas attorney general’s office, along with the Fort Worth Police Department, helped capture Mr. Jones, who was charged with property theft, money laundering and evading arrest.
Mr. Jones, of McKinney, Texas, remained in custody as of Thursday in Tarrant County, according to a criminal court docket.
His lawyer declined to comment about the charges on Thursday.
A security camera image released by the police showed that on the night of Nov. 28, 2025, which was Black Friday, Mr. Jones, who was not dressed in one of the red polo shirts typically worn by Chick-fil-A employees, stood unattended at a touch screen register at the restaurant that had let him go.
Mr. Jones was wearing what appeared to be light bluejeans, a brown puffer vest and a baseball cap turned backward in the photo. Another person, in one of the restaurant’s red polo shirts, appeared to be standing in the dining room area, where at least one other person was seated at a table.
A Chick-fil-A spokeswoman said on Thursday that the restaurant was cooperating with local authorities, but declined to comment further because of the active investigation.
It was not clear who owned the franchise where Mr. Jones worked or what had led to his firing.
Neil Vigdor covers breaking news for The Times, with a focus on politics.
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