ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Police said it was an odd theft that took an Albuquerque apartment complex a while to figure out one of their employees was ripping them off.

Jessica Madrid now faces felony embezzlement charges. Albuquerque police said she was caught stealing, but the way she was stealing didn’t raise red flags right away.

Albuquerque police said the crime happened at the Echo Ridge Homes Apartments in northeast Albuquerque.

“It took six months for them to really snap to the fact that this money has gone missing,” explained Officer Tanner Tixier, of the Albuquerque Police Department.

By that time, police said 26-year-old Madrid had embezzled thousands of dollars while working as the apartment secretary.

According to a criminal complaint, Madrid’s employer said she embezzled the money one quarter at a time.

“All quarters,” Tixier explained. “But it’s definitely a significant amount of money.”

Each quarter a tenant pays to wash and dry a load of clothes on site adds up.

Madrid’s job was to take those quarters to the bank and deposit for the complex. However, police said she never did make those deposits.

“That’s part of their income. They pay for the machines, they pay for the water, the electricity, so then they use that money, the quarters are using to off-set all those costs,” officer Tixier explained.

In the end, investigators said Madrid made out with thousands of dollars. According to records, Madrid collected quarters from the complex laundry site each week from June 2015 up until January 2016.

Her employer said Madrid even signed for quarter collections she made, but there are no deposit slips.

“She was leaving a signature and paper trail of everything she was doing, which made this one of our easier cases to solve,” said officer Tixier.

In total, detectives said Madrid kept $7,375.75 for herself in laundry money. That’s 29,503 quarters; not a petty theft to police.

“It’s over $5,000, so it’s a third-degree felony,” said Tixier.

Neither the apartment complex nor their property manager wanted to comment to KRQE News 13. According to the police report, the complex staff said they fired Madrid for an unrelated matter before they approached police about the quarters.

It’s unclear what Madrid may have done with all of the quarters.

Madrid is out of jail. Officer Tixier said APD has two other fraud cases against Madrid that they’re currently investigating.