Employee theft is bad enough. But after all the time you’ve spent encouraging wise retirement investments, it really hurts when workers do something stupid with what they’ve stolen.

Having a trusted employee steal from a company is like driving a knife through an HR pro’s heart.

But when the worker spends all the money on something stupid like bingo, it’s like twisting the knife.

Didn’t we encourage you to invest money from work for your retirement? Did all those 401(k) meetings and e-mails mean nothing to you?

Apparently the message didn’t sink in for Nalynle Torres of Fort Walton Beach, FL.

The Beach Liquors employee confessed to police she stole a deposit bag of money from her employer and used it all at a bingo hall, according to Northwest Florida Daily News.

The police report said Torres started playing high-stakes bingo with her own money. After significant losses, she dipped into the $1,600 she stole. Then, she lost all the stolen money, too.

Torres faces grand theft charges.

She stopped showing up for work when the store launched an investigation into the missing money, leaving investigators little doubt where they should start their search.

Tags: bingo, retirement, stealing money