FRENCH VALLEY -- A former employee at a Temecula scrapbook business was sentenced Friday for embezzling from the store.

Jennifer Joy Shabro, 33, of Temecula pleaded guilty Aug. 28 to the embezzlement. She was sentenced by Judge James Warren to 180 days, to be served on consecutive weekends, and five years of formal probation.

How much Shabro embezzled differs dramatically between what she as admitted to and how much the store owner has told police was taken. There will be a hearing next month to decide the amount Shabro will be ordered to pay back.

Richelle Summers, owner of Scrapbook Corner on Ynez Road, told Warren at Friday's hearing that Shabro "is not saying she didn't steal, just that she didn't steal that much."

Between Summers' estimate and the investigation done by Temecula police, the loss tops $100,000 of inventory and cash, according to a Riverside County probation officer's report.

In that report, Shabro estimates the value of what she took to be $5,000 and believes she took about 1,000 items.

However, the probation officer wrote that he was told by authorities that it took more than five hours to search Shabro's home during which more than 10,000 items of property were recovered. Summers was able to identify 95 percent of that property as belonging to her store, the report states.

The probation officer wrote that he found it "quite disturbing" that, while Shabro expressed remorse, she is admitting only a fraction of what authorities suspect was taken, and that her restitution efforts are lacking.

Summers told the judge at Friday's hearing that she had to refinance her family's home "to stay afloat" after the embezzlement.

"We may never recover financially," she added. "Jennifer was smiling and laughing with us … while she was stealing behind our backs."

She hired a private investigator once she started to suspect internal theft at her store. Included in his investigation was videotaping of the store, during which Shabro was seen embezzling in different ways.

Summers said there were times Shabro could be seen on tape doing "a little happy dance" when she would pocket cash.

Joshua Summers, son of the store's owner, told the judge that Shabro was also seen using her own children as accomplices to take property from the business.

When interviewed by the probation officer, Shabro said she has been attending a 12-step program at a Temecula church.

"There is so much shame and so much guilt that comes from this … they treated me like family," Shabro told the probation officer when asked about the victims.

Before rendering his sentence, the judge called Shabro's acts "a pretty egregious example of theft, particularly from a small business.

"She endangered that family business," Warren said.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.