photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center is pictured on Sept. 4, 2024.

A Dillons employee admitted to stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the grocery store to buy a gaming computer and Magic the Gathering trading cards, among other purchases, according to allegations in a recently released arrest affidavit.

An asset protection manager with the store told Lawrence police he estimated that the employee, Ethan Cade Waters, 21, of Lawrence, had stolen between $40,000 and $50,000, but he said he could prove at least $25,000 through video evidence.

Police were dispatched to the store at 3000 W. Sixth St. on the afternoon of May 16. When an officer arrived, he found Waters sitting in an office with the asset protection manager — and $14,000 in cash sitting on a table. The officer learned from the two men that this was money that Waters had stolen but had not yet spent. Waters had gone home to retrieve the cash after the manager confronted him about the theft, according to the affidavit.

The officer indicated that he had then reviewed a handwritten confession by Waters in which he admitted to taking $9,000 on two occasions and “spending some of it on Magic the gathering trading cards and a high end gaming computer.”

The officer read Waters his Miranda rights, which Waters reportedly waived, and then Waters, citing financial hardship, said he took the money to help his father. The affidavit does not specify anything about the father’s situation or why Waters thought he needed help. Nor does it specify Waters’ job title at the store or how he had access to so much cash. Police had earlier told the Journal-World that the thefts had apparently been going on since the beginning of 2026.

Waters told the police officer that $45,000 was a reasonable approximation of his total theft, admitting that he took $9,000 on one occasion, then $10,000, then “a couple thousand” on other occasions, according to the affidavit.

The asset protection manager, agreeing that Waters had taken at least $45,000, told the officer that he had entered into a “civil agreement” for the returned $14,000 plus $6,000 more, but he said he desired to press charges on the remaining $25,000.

Waters was charged with one count of felony theft of an amount between $25,000 and $100,000 and was released shortly after his arrest on a surety bond of $2,500. He was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday afternoon for a status conference.

An arrest affidavit is a sworn document compiled by a law enforcement officer to outline the probable cause for making an arrest. The allegations in the affidavit have not been proved in a court of law.