Putting the Pieces Together

When initiating an employee theft investigation, the case can often seem complex or even inconclusive on whether or not the subject is committing acts of dishonesty. What instigated the examination of the associate’s behavior may have seemed like a minor indicator, such as decrease in job performance or not parking in staff areas, however, it is the investigator’s task to take these small malfeasances and see if these become pieces that when put together like a puzzle, create a picture of clear acts of stealing. Sometimes the piece you begin with doesn’t always point directly to a case of internal theft.

A particular case I handled comes to mind that illustrates this perfectly. While employed at a big box retailer, my team and I would conduct perpetual inventory twice daily of “hot” items that were easily taken by employee theft. Within a week, an entire line of popular anti-aging products began disappearing off the shelf. Our perpetual inventory established time frames of loss, so the other agents and I began reviewing video to look for a possible subject. At first no one stuck out to us because whenever the items were selected, the customer always headed to a cashier. Upon further investigation, we discovered that although it appeared to be taken to check out, there weren’t sales around these times.

With this piece we realized we were undertaking a potential employee theft investigation and we started narrowing in on a particular cashier. This person was the employee that these customers were going to when checking out. Upon further investigation into the cashier’s ringing history, we confirmed numerous cases of this associate passing merchandise to friends and family. The customer would approach the line, purchase a couple low-dollar items, and the cashier would “sweetheart” our high-risk merchandise. After documenting these incidents, we pulled the associate and he was terminated for internal theft. Thanks to our ability to take these seemingly unrelated pieces and put them together to create a complete puzzle picture, my store rid itself of a toxic member due to employee theft.

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