LAPLACE — Authorities in St. John say that the manager of a LaPlace fast food franchise location fabricated an armed robbery in order to cover up the possible loss of cash from the restaurant.

Maj. Mike Tregre, public information officer for the St. John Sheriff’s Office, said that Nathaniel Williams, 32, 240 Meadow Ln., Destrehan, was booked with theft by fraud and falsifying a police report after telling detectives that he made up a story about being robbed at gunpoint to avoid disciplinary action. Williams, the store manager of the Burger King Restaurant on Airline Highway near U.S. 51, said that a loss of money during a deposit is a violation of company policy.

According to a Sheriff’s Office report, Williams told police he was held up at gunpoint while driving to a local bank to make the deposit. Williams said he left the store around 11:25 a.m. Wednesday and drove toward the back of the building when a black male, wearing a black hooded jacket and white tennis shoes, jumped in front of his car and instructed him to “give it up.” He said he gave the suspect the money and that the suspect fled the scene traveling north on U.S. 51 in an older model gray Oldsmobile Cutlass with a faded roof.

Tregre said during the course of the investigation detectives interviewed Williams multiple times and also checked surveillance videos from several neighboring businesses to determine if any evidence of the robbery was recorded. He said after five hours of questioning, Williams finally confessed that he lost the money for the deposit.

Tregre said the incident is still under investigation and that detectives have not been able to locate the cash at this time. He said Williams was booked into the Sherman Walker Correctional Facility, where he remains detained in lieu of a $30,000 bond.