I recently concluded an employee theft investigation in one of my general merchandise stores. The last time I was in this store, I had noticed a customer who had been in and out of the store several times during the day.  At first, I thought he might have been a shoplifter because I never saw him buy anything.

I then thought differently as this man was awfully friendly with my store employees. I then began to suspect that there might be some employee theft going on. I started to review my recorded video of the cash registers for the last few days.

Over and over again I saw the man coming up to the register. He would speak with the employees, who would give him a few loose cigarettes out of a pack that was mostly hidden by the registers. Sometimes the man would hand over cash or sometimes it was something in a bag that I could not identify.

I then suspected that this was employee theft of our cigarettes.  I went out and did a physical count of the cigarettes in question and compared it to what our inventory should have been. We were several cartons short.

As it turned out, the employees were selling loose cigarettes to this man, who in turn, would sell the cigarettes (and other store merchandise) in the parking lot – splitting the cash with the employees. The cigarettes were, of course, stolen from our inventory.

For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal theft contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help you stop Employee Theft and Internal Theft problems and help with your Employee Theft Investigation.

When an employee has their personal possessions taken, it is more than just that possession that is taken. An employee takes the losses personally. They feel victimized and they feel let down and betrayed. Internal theft is not just about stealing the company’s assets, but also any theft occurring inside your place of business.

An employee comes to work with an overall assumption that when they leave their belongings (coats, purses, cell phones) in a designated employee area, their belongings are protected and safe.

When something is stolen, they no longer feel that they are safe and that their employers are to blame for not maintaining that safety. The employees then take it upon themselves to protect their things.

This leads to broken trust and broken policies. Since the employee no longer trusts you, they will begin to stash their bags behind the POS where they can keep an eye on it, or take their cell phone on the floor.

Now you are faced with the internal theft, broken policies, and you are a short leap away from other employees seeing what is going on and they too will begin to make up their own rules of governance.

When you start to lose these controls, you open your doors even wider to other losses. You lose any camaraderie or employee good will as everyone is now deemed a suspect. You loose your control over the situation as it is now viewed as every man for himself, and you open yourself up to further theft.

If you cannot resolve the current employee theft investigation, it could be viewed as a lack of overall security, making you merchandise and cash free game.

For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal theft contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help you stop Employee Theft and Internal Theft problems and help with your Employee Theft Investigation.

When an employee needs to supplement their income between paychecks years ago, they would often float or kite a check. They didn’t really think of it as a form of internal theft because these employees viewed it as a loan of sorts.

Here’s how it worked.

An employee would write a check and get cash. They would not have enough money in their bank account to cover the dollar amount of the check. So the cash they got from the check would get deposited into their account.

Deposits would post faster than it would take the check to clear, however, they still needed to cover the bad check they had written.

They would write a second check and get cash. Then they would deposit that cash into their accounts. This cash would be enough to cover the first check, but not the second. So they would have to do it again, and again…

This would be a way to supplement their account in between paychecks. Once they had their paycheck deposited, the paycheck would cover the bad checks that had been written.

It is rare that we see employee theft investigations for bad checks these days.

What we do see is the same process with deposits. Cash is taken out of a deposit and cash from the next day’s deposit covers it up. They will take the money out of each deposit until they can make up the difference with their paychecks.

Generally we figure out the internal theft because something happens to break the cycle. If an employee falls ill or quits, the money to cover the previous day’s loan is not there and the money shows up missing.

For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal theft contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help you stop Employee Theft and Internal Theft problems and help with your Employee Theft Investigation.