Sharon Logan’s former boss remembers that when he questioned her about several thousand dollars of missing money, Logan said she had to go to the bathroom.

A few minutes later, through the front office window, he saw Logan scurry by outside with an armload of papers. She never returned.

Three years later, in 2017, Logan was convicted of one felony count of Grand Theft from Employer, and another felony grand theft count regarding the other plumbing company they partnered with. Those were Logan’s fourth and fifth financial felony convictions.

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Don Baker, Logan’s supervisor and a partner at RSM Plumbing & Heating in Mission Viejo, recalls that even before the theft, he was disappointed in Logan’s demonstrated skills versus what her resume claimed. Logan was hired to deal with payroll and other financial issues for the two small plumbing companies. However, Baker had to train her for basic technical tasks, so Logan did filing and other menial work for her first few weeks there.

“She’s not a criminal mastermind. She’s dumb as a rock,” was how Baker put it.

Logan’s grift was not sophisticated. Almost immediately after they turned over payroll duty to Logan, she put in a massive amount of unearned overtime –“more than the hours in a week,” Baker said — to her own paycheck.

In the previous pay period, Logan stole a smaller amount that he hadn’t noticed. An employee later told him Logan had unsuccessfully solicited him to join the scheme. “He said she told him, ‘Hey, these guys don’t know what’s going on. Want me to put in some overtime for you?’ ” Baker remembered.

Neither Baker nor his partner, David Fleck of Geers Plumbing, knew why it took the Orange County District Attorney’s office so long to charge Logan. The DA filed the case in 2016. Logan pled guilty in June, 2017.

Fleck made the hiring decision. He had no idea about Logan’s criminal theft history– misdemeanor ID theft in 2013 (she wasn’t charged until 2015); two Riverside County felonies in 2003 for taking money by False Pretenses; felony grand theft and misdemeanor embezzlement in 2000 for stealing nearly $250,000 by falsifying time cards in Riverside County; and 1999 misdemeanor ID theft against her ex-husband in San Bernardino County.

Fleck said he hired Logan based mainly on her interview personality, which was upbeat and “laid back.” Being a dog lover, he was also impressed by her website and stories about Paw Protectors, Logan’s animal welfare nonprofit. Like many people, Fleck assumed it was a big deal to get nonprofit status. (It’s not.)

But after Logan’s rapid departure, the plumbers saw another side of her personality. Baker recalls Logan called a client immediately after she left and falsely accused Baker of throwing a desk at her.

Baker also remembers Logan texting Fleck and demanding around $15,000 to stop her from making complaints to various agencies. (They didn’t give it to her.) Fleck remembers it a little differently — he said he didn’t remember Logan asking directly for money, but she falsely accused another employee of harassing her with sexual texts. Fleck said the alleged texts never materialized.

Logan was sentenced to 180 days in jail which was later reduced to about 90, and she was allowed to serve weekends only. During her sentence, the two companies received small, weekly garnishments of about $70 from her paycheck. (The penal system garnishes inmates’ wages for criminal restitution.) Baker and Fleck don’t know where she was working.

They said they haven’t seen a penny from her since her sentence ended, which was somewhere around early 2018. Throughout that time and afterward, Logan’s page contains lots of pictures of Logan on trips and at nice restaurants. Baker and Fleck wanted to collect the rest of the debt, but didn’t know how.

Logan still owes them more than $8,000 in victim restitution, according to court records and her own recent bankruptcy petition. Based on her petition, it appears she hopes to get that debt wiped away. In total, by our calculations, she owes more than $500,000 in court-ordered criminal restitution (counting interest) to the various victims of her thefts, and we’ve found no evidence she’s ever paid any except for that time during jail when she was garnished.

After the Logan experience, the two plumbers took over their payroll themselves.

Logan is very active on social media. But we’ve never seen her acknowledge her lengthy criminal past, except during one recent Facebook conversation where another activist called her out. Logan responded by bragging that she only had to serve 90 days, on weekends:

“And as far as doing time, I’m not ashamed,” she continued. “I join the ranks of Martha Stewart … Danny Trejo, Robert Downey Jr. to name just a few.”