I received a phone call recently from a friend of mine who works for a national retail chain as a district level investigator. She observed an undercover police officer escorting someone back to his patrol car as she was leaving a store. She also noticed that the parking lot was suddenly filled with squad cars surrounding the area.

Needless to say, she was rather intrigued by these events and decided to stay and observe what was unfolding before her eyes.  One of the store employees who had been sitting in his car was handcuffed and taken away moments later.

She immediately went into the store to let the store managers know that there was a very distinct possibility that this employee would not be returning from his lunch break.

Although the protocol of innocent until proven guilty is vital to our legislative system, it does not follow that we should be negligent in regard to our due diligence.

Initiating a valid employee theft investigation when doubt exists about an employee’s integrity in the workplace is vital in protecting assets, reducing losses and assuring that only trustworthy employees remain employees in one’s business.

An employee theft investigation yields no evidence of wrong doing if the employee under suspicion is clean. However, if you have an employee selling drugs, or conducting other illicit activities on his or her lunch break in the store’s parking lot, odds are good that something will be found when conducting an employee theft investigation on such an employee.

We like to think as investigators that we are on top of every employee theft incident. We don’t ever want to think that we overoked or weren’t smart enough to catch every instance of employee theft or internal theft happening right under our nose.

It is wisdom to set aside our pride and allow someone else’s investigation open the door to conducting the employee theft investigation indicated as a result of another’s expertise and good fortune.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help deter employee theft and internal theft challenges and facilitate employee theft investigation.

For more information about employee theft, employee theft investigation and internal theft please contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia.

We recently had a situation with one of our soda vendors. These are commission-based positions that are paid based off of how much product we invoice from them. If they take away bad/ old product, it is deducted from their monthly totals, and of course from their commissions. While they are not specifically employees of our store, this form of vendor theft falls into the category of employee theft.

This vendor had been stealing back his own product for about five years. He would drop off and invoice for ten cases of soda. After sitting and chatting for a bit, the manager would go off to attend to other things. The vendor would then put cases back in boxes and wheel them back out. Anyone who saw him just assumed it was old product that he was supposed to take back. No one ever thought to check for an expiration date on the drinks, much less to see if the cases were properly documented on an invoice.

The store was not reconciling their invoices with each shipment, like they were supposed to, and the vendor knew it. That is why this internal theft was so easy to do. No one noticed, and no one paid attention or questioned what was going on.

It wasn’t until my first set of inventories that I noticed huge quantities of sodas missing. When I saw this same trend in several stores in the district, I knew I needed to start an employee theft investigation.

After noticing the lack of credits on the invoices in several stores, and seeing the same vendor in each store I knew something was going on. It didn’t take long to figure out what had been happening. The vendor’s company was notified and the vendor was terminated immediately.

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 problemsand helpwith your Employee Theft Investigation.

While it did occur, it was very rare that potential employees went out of their way to get hired to a particular company just so they could steal. Background checks can only tell you what someone has done in the past, not what they will do in the future. That is why it is so unfortunate when you are face with an employee theft situation. One of the hardest parts of working is retail management, is dealing with employee theft– alternately referred to as internal theft. It’s a personal blow to think that someone you know, someone you trust, is stealing from you and your company.

During the interview portion of employee theft investigation, most employees said that they stole because they couldn’t afford the items. In my experiences dealing with employee theft investigations, it is often an unforeseen circumstance that makes these associates change their honest ways. It could be that a spouse lost their job, or medical bills came sneaking up on them.

While you can’t control the outside circumstances of every employee’s life, there are some steps you can take in preventing internal theft. By using anti theft devices like pedestals, hard tags and labels you can often keep your employees honest by making them realize how hard it will be to discreetly steal from your store. Providing visual cues like these retail anti theft devices, goes a long way to preventing employee theft.

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