A former Home Depot associate who quietly turned the company’s gift cards into her own multimillion-dollar bankroll is headed to federal prison.
Felecia Ingram, 53, of Covington, was sentenced Thursday to three years and one month in federal prison after prosecutors said she stole more than $4 million in gift cards from the retailer's Store Support Center. She was also ordered to pay $3,946,776 in restitution and will serve three years of supervised release once her prison term is over.
How prosecutors say she did it
From March 2020 through July 2021, Ingram, a gift card sales associate at Home Depot since 2008, used her facility and network access at the company’s Store Support Center to quietly siphon off inventory, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Prosecutors say she removed about 8,325 physical gift cards, activated them with bogus sales orders, then deleted the records to hide the theft. The scheme eventually showed up as a ledger discrepancy that tipped off Home Depot's gift-card team. Investigators later determined the cards carried a combined value of roughly $4,085,043.
According to prosecutors, Ingram sold many of the activated cards on the black market and used the proceeds to fund what investigators described as “an extravagant gambling lifestyle.”
Sentence and restitution
Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. imposed the sentence after Ingram pleaded guilty to access device fraud on May 1, 2025. As reported by WSB-TV, Thrash ordered three years and one month in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, along with nearly $3.95 million in restitution to The Home Depot.
Prosecutors' statement
Federal prosecutors did not mince words about the scale of the inside job.
“While employed at The Home Depot, the defendant abused the trust placed in her and stole a staggering $4 million from the company,” U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said in the office’s release.
The U.S. Secret Service's Atlanta field office, which handled the investigation, praised the cooperation with Home Depot and federal prosecutors, noting that the scheme relied on falsified orders and deleted records to stay hidden.
Gift-card fraud and organized retail crime
Officials and lawmakers say gift-card schemes like this one have become a go-to tactic for some organized retail crime groups, in part because the cards let criminals convert merchandise or access into portable value quickly.
A report on retail crime and fraud published on Congress.gov notes that prepaid cards and gift certificates are increasingly cited in large fraud operations, a trend that has helped spur federal attention to gift-card abuse.
Legal fallout and enforcement
Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen H. McClain prosecuted the case, and the U.S. Secret Service led the investigation, according to WSB-TV. Prosecutors say Ingram made millions by selling the stolen cards and will now be responsible for repaying most of that under the restitution order.
How to protect your gift cards
Home Depot offers guidance on how customers and stores can cut down the risk of gift-card fraud, including basic but important steps like checking card packaging, guarding card numbers, and reporting any suspicious activity to store staff. For more details, visit The Home Depot for its gift card safety information.
