Putting the Pieces Together – Employee Theft

Often the case can appear complex or even inconclusive regarding the subject’s guilt or innocence when initiating the typical employee theft investigation.  Examination of the associate’s behavior may have revealed what seemed like a minor indicator – perhaps a decrease in job performance or not parking in staff areas.

However, it is the investigator’s task to consider these small infractions and determine if these pieces when put together create a distinct picture of theft. Frequently the piece of the puzzle that instigates the search does not conclusively point to internal theft.

One case in particular comes to mind to perfectly illustrate this point. My team and I conducted perpetual inventory assessment twice daily of “hot” items easily taken by employees while employed at a big box retailer. We observed an entire line of popular anti-aging products disappearing from the shelf within a week of initiating this particular employee theft investigation.

Our perpetual inventory established time frames of loss, so the other agents and I began reviewing video to look for a possible subject.  Nothing struck us at first because the customer always headed to a cashier whenever these products were selected. We discovered upon further investigation, that although the products appeared to be taken to check out, there were no sales around these times.

We started focusing on a particular cashier once this piece of the puzzle was in place and we realized we were undertaking a probable employee theft investigation. The customers purchasing the anti-aging products were consistently approaching the same cashier 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.

This employee was terminated for internal theft after documenting these incidents for the employer. The ability to take these seemingly unrelated pieces and put them together to create a coherent picture ended a toxic employee’s opportunity to propagate employee theft and served as a warning to everyone involved.

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