No Celebration at the Party Store Employee Theft Investigation – Atlanta Georgia

Senior Management of a party supply store contacted Loss Prevention Systems, Inc to conduct an employee theft investigation because the cash shortages “were starting to get out of control.”  The manager’s register was found to be $50.00 short in cash and a review of the day’s detail showed nothing unusual on that day.

The front-end manager stated that on that day she had opened the register without counting it down, assuming that someone else had done it.  Furthermore, after logging on the register in the morning, she had not logged off until that afternoon, meaning that someone else may have had access to the register to ring sales without having to sign on.

Our investigator determined that there were only two employees other than management working on that day, and both were interviewed.  The first was cleared through the interview.

The second admitted during the interview that she had taken the $50.00 and that she had taken cash on several occasions for the past three months.  She did this by ringing bogus sales to open the register and then removing the cash. She also confessed to stealing greeting cards and stationery for her own use and giving away food and drinks to other employees.  She stated that she was currently on probation as a previous employer had prosecuted her for employee theft .

The store’s manager terminated her employment and later took a warrant for the employee’s arrest for theft.

Discussion:

How do you know that your managers manage?  This employee theft investigation revealed that the manager failed to do two things that provided opportunity for employee theft : Counting down and documenting the amount in the register at opening and closing should be done 100%.  Every employee who rings on a register should use his own number and log off when not actually at the register.

This employee had not checked the box on the application that asks, “Have you ever been convicted of a crime?” but obviously this store did not conduct a background check, or they would either have not hired this person at all or would have kept a closer eye on her if they had hired her.

Policies and procedures should be written and communicated to all employees, and followed to reduce opportunities like these from occurring.

Employee theft is a never-ending battle. Make sure that your management is not allowing it to occur because of lax enforcement of Policy and Procedure or training. It is cheaper to follow the rules than have to accept the employee theft losses.

For more information about employee theft contact us at employee theft investigation or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia