FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The former Page & Palette employee arrested this week in connection with charges of theft from that Fairhope bookstore was out of jail this morning on a $25,000 bond, according to the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office.

Theresa Canavan Lyda, 41, was arrested Tuesday afternoon at the Fairhope Police Department on 25 counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, said FPD Sgt. Craig Sawyer, adding that Lyda was transported yesterday morning to the Baldwin County Corrections Center in Bay Minette.

Initially set at $5,000 per count, Lyda’s bail was reduced to $1,000 per count, which she posted through a bail bonds company, a BCSO employee said.

Phone calls to Lyda’s Fairhope residence Thursday morning were not returned.

“It’s substantially higher than the amount quoted,” said Kelly McGriff, an attorney for Page & Palette, referring to media accounts Thursday that Lyda had allegedly stolen $50,000.

McGriff agreed the total amount was closer to $131,000, a figure given by an anonymous tip to this newspaper early Wednesday morning. Sawyer said several news outlets had received anonymous phone calls that day with similar information.

“They may be trying to sensationalize the issue,” Sawyer said.

Lyda worked for Page and Palette for about two and a half years, said Karin Wilson, the store’s president.

“She left on her own at the beginning of October,” Wilson said, adding that the theft was detected on Dec. 19 and a report filed with the police department on Dec. 22.

Wilson would not specify how the theft was discovered.

The police department incident report states that the theft involving “unexplained charges” of $50,000 from the store occurred between Dec. 1, 2006, and Oct. 31, 2008.

“It’s definitely more than $50,000,” said Wilson, adding her store has continued to try to determine the actual amount with the assistance of local police.

“We’ve had nothing of this magnitude before,” she said. “It’s been a shock to us.”

The store is insured for losses from employee theft but the policy will not cover the entire amount in this case, she said.

“It’s got a max of $25,000,” Wilson said. “We’ve already filed for it.”

Barbara Rutherford, a commercial accounts manager with a Mobile insurance company, said most business owners’ policies for retail stores like Page & Palette have employee theft coverage built into the policy.

“It was previously called employee dishonesty and before that a fidelity bond,” Rutherford said.

“It often comes with a $25,000 limit. There are also things the insured has to do to activate the coverage, such as prosecute the case and not allow the employee to continue working there.”

Such policies protect against employees stealing money from cash registers or writing fraudulent checks against the business, said Rutherford, who is also an instructor on commercial insurance issues throughout the state for the Alabama Independent Insurance Agents Association.

“This kind of policy would be something you would recommend to a retail business,” she said. “Especially with the economy being what it is, there’s a lot of temptation out there to slip a ten dollar bill from an employer’s cash register into a pocket.”

The second-degree forged instrument offense in this case is a Class C felony with each of the 25 counts carrying a punishment of one to 10 years in state prison and a fine of not more than $5,000.

“The Wilsons and the Page & Palette Foundation have given back so much to this community that this is an absolute shame,” McGriff said, of the well-known bookstore and gathering place that celebrated its 40th anniversary last year and its affiliated charitable organization.

“They seem to have been the victim of an apparent and systematic defrauding, which put their livelihood in danger.”