Owner of prom dress store accused of taking customers' cash now faces new allegations

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A dress store owner accused of taking off with her client's cash is facing new allegations from her own employees.

Eyewitness News has learned that not only are there still dozens of local girls without their dressess, workers at PROM 101 say they're without paychecks, and the owner is still nowhere to be found.

"It's embarassing and heartbeaking that I worked for someone that would do such a thing," former employee Shantinel Thomas said.

Thomas says she was the store manager of prom 101. She says she was hired by a woman named Reca Cagel, who owned the store. She says she showed up to work a month ago and she couldn't get in.

"She told me were were locked out. I said, 'Why?" She said, 'Long story,'" Thomas said.

Thomas says right now, there are still dozens of local girls without their dresses that they've already paid for.

"It's pretty huge. We had a lost of clients," Thomas said, "not just cases of prom, but I had quincencearas, bridemsaids."

And while young ladies are wondering where their dresses are, Thomas wants to know where her money is. She says the owner skipped town with out paying her or the other workers.

"I havent been paid. My workers havent been paid. Heartbreaking because a lot of these girls came and worked after school," Thomas aid.

Thomas says the owners phones are disconnected, but she has a message for her former boss.

"I gave 100 percent. We all gave 100 percent for you to up and vanish and not say anything...absurd," she said.

There is a glimpse of hope. The young lady featured in last week's story says she did recieve her dress in the mail. However, it wasn't altered.