Employee Theft

Well we just caught a kid stealing. Or attempting to steal. 30 cartons of cigarettes at roughly $35 each for about $1050.00 worth of attempted theft.

One of our office ladies has a step-son. He is 18. His girlfriend is pregnant. We decided to do the office lady a favor and hire her step-son. He moved a case of cigarettes out of the cigarette area and placed it into the "candy room" behind some candy. The manager of the candy warehouse sees that her inventory is not looking just like she left it. She inspects, finds the cigarettes, bee lines it up to the office to make a report.

We replace the full case of cigarettes with an empty case, cover it up with the same loose boxes of candy that caught the attention of the candy warehouse manager and set up a camera.

Less than 1 hour later the kid is "taking out the trash" and swings into the candy room. CAUGHT RED HANDED.

He's been working here for about a week. I guess he thought he figured out a way to "beat our systems" and found out the hard way he was wrong.

He's having a chat with a police officer now

You are indeed lucky that she is so observant. Last month an employee ring in a UPC bar code number into a department on the cash register. Instead of telling a manager, she tried to correct it by doing a return. All she had to do was to void the transaction, and it would have been canceled out. Now, our end of month sales appear to be $347 Million dollars, and we are short in the sales tax column big time. You might say that the when I mentioned the mistake. I was told by her that it is the computerized register program that was messing up, and that she didn't make any mistakes. That was when I showed her that every keystroke on the register is video taped along with a over lay of graphics showing the numbers and keys punched. Opps..... she had no choice but to then admit that she made the mistake. It seems that when something goes wrong, it is always the "computers fault".... She is now pissed at me big time because I installed a system that "spies on the employees".......

Situations like this just blow me away. This guy is fortunate enough to have people around his mother that want to help him. He threw away a chance to make an honest living for some cigs. I can't understand why people risk their entire earning potential just for items they can buy with their paychecks!

buckle97 said:

He threw away a chance to make an honest living for some cigs.

Click to expand...

Yup. It is stupid. But the good news is that I have a guy who is mildly retarded who is looking for a job. He was a student at the high school my wife teaches for and graduated a couple months ago. He can't find a job and we now have an opening. I've met this kid several times at some of the stores in town, at some High School events, etc. He is one of those kids who stands out as being a good kid, but because he is slow, many won't take a chance on him.

Junkman said:

That was when I showed her that every keystroke on the register is video taped along with a over lay of graphics showing the numbers and keys punched. Opps..... she had no choice but to then admit that she made the mistake. It seems that when something goes wrong, it is always the "computers fault".... She is now pissed at me big time because I installed a system that "spies on the employees".......

Click to expand...

We installed a similar system at our two new retail stores. It records the transactions on camera, with a text overlay of the transaction. We told our clerks about it and showed them how it works . . . they also know that the control computer is locked behind a door that they don't have access through. Ours also allows for remote viewing of all the cameras via internet access (but I've not tried that yet).

B_Skurka said:

Yup. It is stupid. But the good news is that I have a guy who is mildly retarded who is looking for a job. He was a student at the high school my wife teaches for and graduated a couple months ago. He can't find a job and we now have an opening. I've met this kid several times at some of the stores in town, at some High School events, etc. He is one of those kids who stands out as being a good kid, but because he is slow, many won't take a chance on him.

Click to expand...

This is the way employment should be obtained. This kid has obviously made some good decisions in the past if he stands out as being a good kid. This kid has met you and obviously made an impression since you remember meeting him. Personally, I would much rather "take a chance" on this kid than "do the office lady a favor" and hire her son. I bet you feel better about your chances with this kid than you ever did with her her son.

B_Skurka said:

Yup. It is stupid. But the good news is that I have a guy who is mildly retarded who is looking for a job. He was a student at the high school my wife teaches for and graduated a couple months ago. He can't find a job and we now have an opening. I've met this kid several times at some of the stores in town, at some High School events, etc. He is one of those kids who stands out as being a good kid, but because he is slow, many won't take a chance on him.

Click to expand...

\

All I can say is God Bless you Bob ! The good Lord works in strange ways and you helping a mentally challenged person is indeed a noble thing . You just gained a lot more respect from me . You always had it ,but now you get a double scoop !!

Seems like they all think they can beat the system. I have a local convenience store I stop in about every morning for coffee and a paper. Got to know most of the folks in there pretty well. One day I go in and, no familiar faces. The next day, I go in and there is one girl I know there. I asked her what happened and she said they all got fired for stealing. Wiped out almost all of their first and second shifts.
My Mom worked at, and semi-managed, a little trinket store on the beach in Florida for years. They kept missing cash and goods so Mom asked me to rig up a simple camera and VCR for them. From that point on, I believe they caught every single employee stealing, even though they told them they were being watched. Hutch

Hey Bob if it makes you feel any better one of my co-workers stole cold hard cash from me last week. Crock is that she dosent even really need it. She just took it to take it. All I could say to my self after I calmed down was what goes around comes around...and today I saw it come around. She went to go run some errands on her lunch and someone plowed right into her (not bad) Needless to say when she came back to work she was hot and said what else can go f*#*^ing wron this week?
I just smiled go myself and said sweet revenge!

I don't even get angry anymore, we have this problem all the time and 99% of the time it is with someone who just started working and has less than 90 days on the job. This guy had under 10 days!!! What I am grateful for is that so many of the long term employees really look out for the company and will protect the company. That is exactly what happened today, the candy room manager has been here for 15+ years and likes her job.

Its just crazy that so many people steal. As I am now just getting into the retail business with a few small stores I'm curious to see how the theft problem is in retail. Hopefully we have good people? I know some of them are excellent, some are new to me.

As for the new guy we are going to hire, I have no problem with bringing in retarded employees. In fact we have several already. One has been with me for probably 10 years. I started a program working with a local care agency and he was one of the first ones that I hired through that agency and it has worked out very well. We have some jobs they cannot do, and some that they can. Heck we've even had them train new employees on specific tasks. We've had some newspaper articles written about the company and these employees and even gotten several awards because of it, but that's not why I do it. We all need a chance, its just that simple. I've got a deaf employee who I can't talk to but we tell each other great jokes with hand signals and by trading scraps of paper with notes scribbled on them. Sometimes its just the little things in life that make it all worth living. For every 1 idiot who pisses me off with theft, I have a dozen experiences that are positive, even if it is just from the one guy who shouts: HEY BOB, NICE SHIRT! every single day. Or his friend who every day comments that the guy talking about my shirt is a "brown nose" Both are from the aid agency, and both can make me smile no matter how bad a day I could be having.

It never ceases to amaze me how common it is these days for people to not accept responsibility for their actions. The story that Junk told about the woman who finally admitted to screwing up ONLY after she was confronted with hard evidence is a good example. And after that she has the balls to complain she is being watched! I guess some people would not have admitted screwing up even with evidence.

Bob, what, if anything, did the little thief say when you confronted him? Did he fess up? Did he make an excuse? I have absolutely no sypathy for scum like him. Oh, and you did good Bob by hiring the new kid.
Bonehead

BoneheadNW said:

<snip>
Bob, what, if anything, did the little thief say when you confronted him? Did he fess up? Did he make an excuse?
<snip>

Click to expand...

My guess is he said "HEY BOB, NICE SHIRT!" and he still works there!

Well just to set the record straight, the kid we fired DENIED everything, eventhough the warehouse manager caught him red handed.

Bob- What about the step-mom? How did she react? I hope the fact that his girlfriend is pregnant didn't come into the discussion such as "Well you know his girlfriend is pregnant so he is desperate ,,,,,,".
Bonehead

Step-mom is very angry . . . at the kid, not at the company! In fact it would not surprise me if step-mom beats the kid up (figuratively) for a very long time to come.

Bob, It is really hard to find reliable and honest people for employees anymore. Too bad. We can relate to that with our old business. We had a wholesale to retail business with several sales people working for us. We furnished their vans, meals, phones, gas and motels while on the road with our product. We hired one of our nephews. He was an excellent sales person. Could sell you the shirt off his back. But his inventory kept coming up several hundred dollars short. So, we did a complete inventory of his van over a weekend, and found hidden compartments in various areas of the van that he had built to hide merchandise. When we confronted him, his excuse was "I needed the merchandise to help "open doors". I asked him why he didn't write it down on the invoice at NC? We found out other stuff he'd done as time went on.. So, to say the least he was a "goner". Very disappointed in him though. Even to this day it's hard to acknowledge him when we see him in town.

So, it doesn't get better with time.

Bob, you are a saint.

As for the kid stealing, he should be punished to the full extent of the law. I have no room for thieves, sorry but they go down there with the scum, and others that dont deserve to be in society

As for hiring the handicapped, any handicapped, . I am semi handicapped, wear braces on my feet and legs. I dont know that it has ever kept me from a job, since I have never really had to look for one since having them, but I wonder what it is doing for me now.