A Rite Aid floor supervisor was sentenced this month to two years and eight months in state prison for setting up armed robberies in Dana Point and Costa Mesa and pretending to be the victim. Cynthia Ongamsing-Jenkins, 43, Tustin, pleaded guilty in February to two felony counts of grand theft.

On the night of Nov. 11, 2007, while working as a supervisor at a Rite Aid in Costa Mesa, Ongamsing-Jenkins told police she and another employee had been robbed. She said two men had walked into the store armed with a handgun and ordered her and the other employee to give them the cash from the register and store safe. The other employee was taken at gunpoint and forced into the store cooler. The two men stole approximately $5,500. On June 20, 2009, while working as a floor supervisor at the Rite Aid at 24829 Del Prado in Dana Point, Ongamsing-Jenkins told the Orange County Sheriff’s Department that she was approached by a man as she was walking through the parking lot of a Bank of America with a deposit bag from Rite Aid. She claimed that the man pushed her to the ground and stole the deposit bag containing approximately $20,000 for that week’s deposits. A civilian called 9-1-1 after hearing Ongamsing-Jenkins yell that she had been robbed. The robbery was captured by a security camera overlooking the bank parking lot.

Upon further investigation, deputies discovered two suspicious text messages on Ongamsing-Jenkins cell phone indicating she was involved in planning the staged robbery in Dana Point. When confronted, Ongamsing-Jenkins confessed to the authorities that she had set up both the 2007 and 2009 robberies.

The men in the surveillance videos have not been identified and are still being sought.

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