Employee Theft Investigation Strategies: End of Shift Observation

Another tactic commonly used to spur employee theft investigations is to complete end of shift observations. While sporadic observation of an employee throughout their shift is recommended, it is not until the final minutes before the employee’s break, lunch or shift end that they will typically conduct employee theft activity and conceal the merchandise that they are after.

I was observing an employee during the middle of her shift when a typical lunch break would occur. The employee walked to the break room and punched out. She then took her jacket and purse and headed out of the store. On her way out she stopped in a department and bent down several times, which appeared to be very suspicious of internal theft. The employee then walked out of the building and to her car. I observed her emptying several items into her car before returning to the store, and once I checked the car I could see through the windows that there were several items in the vehicle that appeared to be from our store. After that I decided to observe the subject for the rest of the day. She didn’t conduct any other employee theft during the bulk of her shift, however she did occasionally place merchandise in a fairly secluded area of the store that did not belong there. When it was time for her to go, just as she had before, the employee punched out and grabbed her things. As she was walking through the store the employee stepped into the department where she had previously placed merchandise and bent down several times. After she left the building I found that the merchandise she had staged was missing. On her next shift we interviewed the employee. She admitted to the internal theft and we got a full confession including much more merchandise than what we had observed being taken.

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