A misdemeanor theft charge filed against a Vandalia woman as part of an investigation of a complaint about Foodtown employees taking cash from the safe and leaving IOUs has been dismissed.

Colette Chmiel, 39, was the only one of six employees charged to face a misdemeanor. A Miami County Grand Jury heard evidence in the case against five others, who were accused of felony theft, before declining to return any indictments.

Six employees were charged with theft by Tipp City Police following a complaint by storeowner Jim Davis after he found the IOUs in the safe. The amount borrowed and unpaid at the time totaled more than $39,000, police said. One employee owed $13,385. Others owed from $9,266 to $550.

In statements to police, those accused – at least one with the store since the mid-1970s – said a practice in which employees borrowed money from the store and repaid went back into the years of store ownership by the Chmiel family.

The charge against Colette Chmiel was dismissed in county Municipal Court in May.