Wolchek Investigation: Maid accused of 'dirty work' gets busted

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What Kristine's crew didn't know was that this cleaning lady was hiding a dirty secret and they were rolled.

Kathy worked for Kristine's Maid Brigade business from 1989 until 2003. 

"You could not ask for a better boss," Kathy said.

Wolchek: "Really."

"She was the best boss you could ever ask for," she said.

Rose was an employee for 10 years.

"It was fun working there," she said. "I really enjoyed working there."

And Bunny spent more than 20 years working with Kristine.

"Nice, personable lady,"  she said. "Friendly, good sense of humor. Never had any issues with her."

They've got issues now.

Years after all of them moved on, they found out squeaky-clean Kristine was pretty much a dirty crook.

Wolchek: "You were a victim of identity fraud back in 2003 but you didn't find out until 2015."

"Right, I knew absolutely nothing about it," Rose said. "It hurts. It hurts a lot that she did this to me."

Rose left Kristine's maid business almost 10 years ago when she moved to Arizona. She still considered Kristine a friend but had pretty much forgotten about her, until late last year.

"I get a call from Wells Fargo out of Phoenix saying I owe them close to $15,000," she said.

The bank said Rose owed the money on a credit card taken out 12 years earlier, when she was vice president of Maid Brigade in Troy, Michigan.

The problem is, Rose was never vice president, she just cleaned houses and helped out in the office. And she sure hadn't ever taken out any business credit cards.

"I never saw the cards," Rose said. "I never knew they existed, never saw the cards."

Kathy just found out she was a victim too.  It seems Kristine had used her name and social security number to get charge cards as well, dating back in 2003.

Wolchek: "She's had these credit cards for all these years in your name and you didn't even know it?"

"Nope, never knew it," Kathy said. "Until she just quit paying on them."

Kathy's credit application listed her as president of the company with a huge income.  In reality, Kathy was just a cleaning lady. 

Now she's a retired cleaning lady with bill collectors hounding her.

Wolchek: "How much money?"

"Between two charge cards it's $14,998 dollars and 99 cents," Kathy said.

Then, there's Bunny. 

"I was surprised that someone was attempting to open up a credit card in my name, with the company logo, as a business credit card," she said.

In 2008, Bunny was contacted by a bank's fraud department.  They were wondering if she was trying to take out a Maid Brigade business credit card. 

In her name using her social security number, so she was certainly not. But she suspected it was her boss and supposed friend, Kristine Sallay.

"On the application she listed the company address and stuff but she had listed her personal cell phone to contact if there were any questions," Bunny said.

Bunny filed a police report for identity theft.  No charges were filed because luckily the bank hadn't issued the card yet. 

But of course, Kathy and Rose weren't so lucky.  They hadn't been tipped off to Kristine's craftiness until after she charged up thousands of dollars in their names and stopped paying the bills.

"I called Kris and she admitted she took it out," Rose said. "I gave her time to pay it off and she never paid it off."

So who is Kristine Sallay?  She's still running a cleaning business out of her Troy office.  

But the business no longer belongs to the Maid Brigade franchise.  

Her contract with them was terminated.  According to her 2013 bankruptcy, she owed Maid Brigade $43,719.  

She also owed the IRS about $200,000.

In all, Kristine Sallay had racked up $605,000 in debts.

And that didn't include these credit card debts. After all, Kristine couldn't claim them on her bankruptcy because they weren't in her name. 

They were in Kathy's and Rose's.

But, Kristine was apparently still using them even after her 2013 bankruptcy. Last March she charged up $185 dollars worth of Cookie Lee jewelry on the card in Kathy's name . 

And, she got $3,481 dollars in cash advances at a 23 percent interest rate.  Who cares if it's high - it wasn't in her name.

Kathy and Rose went to the police and Kristine Sallay was charged with identity theft, just last month, at the Oakland County courthouse.

She plead guilty.

And the very next day, she was back as the boss, going with her new crew of unsuspecting employees into people's houses,  which left her old employees wondering.

"I would hope that she's never attempted to do this to any of her customers because she has their personal information," Bunny said.

"This time of year our customers have their income tax stuff right on the tables and desks," Kathy said. "Who says she's not going to steal one of their social security numbers."

"You would go into celebrities' homes," Rose said. "And you're cleaning these people's homes and they have valuables around."

After finishing cleaning a house last week, Wolchek gave Kristine the chance to come clean.

Wolchek: "Can I ask you a little bit about your cleaning up?"

Sallay: "Sure."

Wolchek: "Well you're kind of cleaning up with the credit cards.  What's the deal with the credit cards you took out in your ex-employees names?"

"Oh I can't talk about that," she said.

Wolchek: "You know these ladies want to know what's going on?"

Sallay: "That's not true."

Wolchek: "Well is it true you didn't you just plead guilty to it?"

"No," Sallay said.

"Yeah you did," Wolchek said. "Why don't you set me straight on this."

Kristine doesn't cop to any dirty deeds.

Wolchek: "Isn't this the application you filled out?"

Sallay: "No."

She never even glanced at the paperwork.

Wolchek: "The question I have is why would you steal from your own employees?"

"I didn't," she said.

"Well yeah you did," Wolchek said. "You just plead guilty to it, didn't you?"

"Nope," Sallay said as she slammed her car door.

With that, the glass-cleaning gangsta makes a clean getaway.

Hey Kristine, Wolchek has a tidy place for you in the Hall of Shame!"