Warrant: Staffer At Phone Store In Stafford Added Illegal Charges

STAFFORD, CT — A 35-year-old Stafford woman has been charged with computer crime in the third degree by state police and is accused of illegally tacking on charges to customer accounts while employed at a local mobile phone store.

Katie Ann Barnaby, 35, was arrested Sunday via a warrant from Rockville Superior Court, state police said. She was held overnight on a $25,000 bond and was to be arraigned Monday, records show.

A customer filed a formal complaint with state police in February 2024, but the case dates back to Dec. 4, 2021, when the customer purchased a Samsung phone on a payment plan, at the AT&T store at 787 West Stafford Road, through a staff member, identified as Barnaby, according to a warrant.

The customer began noticing that his bills were larger than the sales agreement, including unauthorized protection plans and other features, according to a warrant. The warrant cites about 30 similar complaints in all and an internal investigation by AT&T. A sales consultant at a Manchester AT&T store told state police that, when she was filling in at the Stafford store, she noticed Barnaby accessing customer accounts without authorization and "adding lines" to the accounts to "generate commission-based profits."

Staffers also suspected Barnaby of retaining trade-ins for herself and selling them online, according to a warrant.

In 2022, Barnaby switched to a store in Willimantic.

The original complainant from Stafford sustained unauthorized charges totaling $2,041.71 from Dec. 2021 to February 2022 and Barnaby made the store switch six months later, according to a warrant.

AT&T internal investigation, eventually obtained by state police via a search warrant, backed up the customer complaints, state police said.

She was officially employed by an authorized AT&T retailer and was fired on July 15, 2022, according to a warrant.