How Did It Get So High?

There is a double-edged sword in the Loss Prevention industry regarding employee theft cases. High dollar cases are often career makers. These are the employee theft investigations that are talked about on conference calls and in managers meetings. Some companies use these cases as examples even in new hire training. Somewhere along the line though, someone always stops and asks- how did this case get so high?

For most incidents of employee theft, there was an operational breakdown. A door left unarmed. Maybe it was the EAS alarm was never responded to, or a refund never questioned. If someone had used the mantra Trust but Verify, would the losses continued?

Generally the merchandise stolen is not recovered in an employee theft case. Same thing goes for cash. Most common is restitution. That means the employee agrees to pay back the dollar amount for which they have conceded to having taken from the company. If the dollar amount gets to high, the chances of a store ever really seeing the money come back is slim to none.

I had a case where the employee agreed to restitution of $100 dollars a month for the next fifty years to pay everything back. The store will eventually get their money, but that year’s shrink line still took the hit and profits were lost, along with a few bonuses!

While employee theft investigations are difficult to catch early on, it’s better in the long run. The key is to track and catch in the early stages of the theft, instead of after the escalation of losses takes place.

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