One of the biggest ‘no-no’s in most every company handbook I have ever read is that employees are not allowed to cohabitate, date, sleep with, or be related to any superiors or subordinates within their home store.  When such an event occurs, it usually results in the transferring of one member of the party to another department or location if not outright termination.  However I have noticed quite a few companies turning a blind eye to violations of this policy and all I can say is that it spells trouble.

In one of my stores I have five employees who are all inter-related through blood or marriage.  Two are supervisors and directly oversee the work of the other three.  The company is aware of this and has done nothing to correct the issue.  I myself have scrutinized all their actions closely as their working together provides the whole group ample opportunity to commit internal theft.  With the supervisors in play they could circumvent LP schedules and systems to allow for untold amounts of internal theft and without a carefully and discreetly implemented employee theft investigation I would be none the wiser to any wrongdoing.

As of this writing their situation has not bore any fruit of the employee theft tree but just because it hasn’t happened doesn’t mean it won’t happen. As with any other employee theft investigation, if the warning signs are there, no matter how long you may have to watch the subjects you are better off doing so than letting them go without being observed.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help you stop Internal Theft and Employee Theft problems and help with your Employee Theft Investigation.

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

Not every employee theft investigation is going to be the same.  Sure the excuses rarely change flavor: “I needed the money”, “I have a gambling problem”, “I just thought I could get away with it”, “I didn’t think anyone would notice”, but the methods involved tend to vary enough that such investigations hardly ever follow the same pattern.

Because more and more employees are becoming aware of the so-called ‘eyes-in-the-sky’ and our constant focus on employee theft many have begun to try more complex and determined tactics to fleece their companies of goods and currency.  The trend that is truly taking off is using outside help to accomplish illicit goals.

In one particularly recent employee theft incident I caught someone free-bagging goods with the help of a friend.  The employee and friend had met up towards the rear of the store and were chatting when I spotted them.  It was hardly conspicuous until I noticed the two women discussing in some detail the items in the friend’s basket.  After about ten minutes the employee went up to the front of the store to a register which was unnecessary as she was only a back-up cashier and there was no line.  Then the friend went to said register to ‘check-out’.  Here was where it got interesting.  The total sale for all of the products came out to around $45.00 and the friend handed over a fifty dollar bill.  The cashier then handed her back three ten dollar bills as change.  When the drawer was clocked at the end of the night there was only the $30.00 discrepancy which they couldn’t rectify to any single transaction until I brought my employee theft investigation to light.  When later confronted in interview the employee stated “I didn’t think anyone would notice that”.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help you stop Internal Theft and Employee Theft problems and help with your Employee Theft Investigation.

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

Employee theft is the most pervasive threat faced by any company.  As a company you rely on your employees to generate the goods and services needed to make a profit and pay their salaries.  However, as we in the Loss Prevention profession are aware, we cannot implicitly trust every single employee completely.  In a perfect world we wouldn’t need to concern ourselves with employee theft or needing to conduct employee theft investigations but this is far from a perfect world.

Everyone in the employ of your company, from the cleaning crew that shows up early in the morning every other day to the kindly retiree grandmother who works part time or the twenty year veteran manager is capable of, and has likely committed an internal theft at one point or another.  Employee theft is so common that there are entire branches of Loss Prevention dedicated to conducting employee theft investigations and terminating or prosecuting the culprits.  It is so common that there are dozens of tracking metrics used by every company with a product to sell or money to move to find who is stealing what or embezzling funds from where.

How do we stamp out this incredibly massive threat to our means of making a profit?  We don’t.  There is no way to completely eliminate internal theft.  Just like shoplifters who make their living by stealing from our respective companies if an employee WANTS to purloin something from your company they will find a way to do it.  They may even get away with it the first few times.  The only way to stop them is to conduct thorough employee theft investigations, to be vigilant, and to make an example of those you catch so that others who may consider taking something that isn’t theirs will think twice before trying.

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

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help you stop Internal Theft and Employee Theft problems and help with your Employee Theft Investigation.

Many small box retailers find themselves centering their full attention on shoplifting as their main cause of inventory loss. This is a very dangerous thought process that can lead to a business crumbling. Employee theft is the largest cause of inventory loss period. I worked for, at the time, a small retailer which sold video and PC games. The business has grown exponentially since then and I have to believe that their success in part was because of their ability to change the overall thought process of how shrink occurs.

When I first started I was brought into the corporate office as a loss prevention administrator. I was dumbfounded to learn that my boss, the director of loss prevention had not one bit of loss prevention experience. In fact she told me that she was a store manager before being promoted into the Director position. My job duties were limited to reviewing daily store paperwork and pulling credit card slips for chargeback disputes (when a customer disputes a charge the retailer has to show a copy of a signed/imprinted credit card slip to win the dispute). There was no talk of employee theft investigation; in fact it wasn’t until my second week on the job before I heard anyone mention employee theft. That conversation was troubling since my boss was telling district managers on a conference call that internal theft is so minimal in the company that they should instead focus on anti-shoplifting methods to control their losses.

This lead to many district managers scratching their heads but they pushed forward using ideas given by my boss. They “gutted” all of their inventory, placing the games in locked drawers behind the register as well as in the stockroom. This process took the stores about two months to implement. My boss had even suggested to the district managers that once the product was secured they could cut back on their daily inventory counts since the losses would most assuredly stop. District managers who brought up the idea of conducting employee theft investigations were met with indifference. There most definitely was a slight improvement in inventory loss in some locations, however in many locations and areas of the country not only did the losses not stop, they shot through the roof.

Employees were given the access to the product in the stockroom, they had keys to the lockable cases, the product was already gutted and easily concealed, there were no bag checks conducted at the store level. Internal theft ran rampant and my boss was clueless. Fortunately I had made a few friends in the inventory control department as well as sales audit and started some employee theft investigations to nail down some of the larger employee theft cases. I was able to work closely with the district managers sharing loss trends, having them do surveillances and then surprise bag checks which ended up catching a few real time employee theft cases. I was able to successfully phone interview the suspects’ real time and obtain large dollar admissions which translated to prosecution and restitution. After about ten of these cases my boss left her position with no notice. To this day I have no idea where she went but it took at least two years for us to put together a real loss prevention team and to gain the respect of the operations sales team. Once the focus was put on internal theft as a primary cause of loss and district managers were properly trained to aid in employee theft investigations were able to cut the company’s shrink by half, which surpassed anyone’s expectations.

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

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help you stop Employee Theft and Internal Theft problems and help with your Employee Theft Investigation.

The title itself led to one of the largest employee theft cases I have ever taken in a small box electronics retailer. One of the most frustrating things any executive can encounter is when money is spent on tools and training and the employees completely ignore them. One of those tools that many retailers have is the ability to track daily cash shortages. In fact many retailers have the capability to track the shortages to the exact register and employee. This is no easy task; it is a combination of technology and register handling policies that allow a business to track not only the overall daily cash shortages but to also track each employee’s cash shortages. The reason for this is two fold, one it will potentially catch internal theft and two it will pinpoint training opportunities for those having difficulties handling transactions. The company I worked for had a great way to track the cash shortages down to the employee which allowed loss prevention and district sales managers’ easy access to audit any potential employee theft trends.

A disturbing trend I began to notice in several stores was the “give a penny, take a penny” slush fund. I would conduct a loss prevention audit and when I came to the cash handling part of the audit I would review the cash shortages for the past quarter. A red flag would immediately go up when there were no cash shortages or overages at all. At that point I would go on the hunt for the “cup” or “dish” of change that ultimately was being used to cover losses or overages in the store. The management always viewed it as a minor issue saying “what does it matter if we were short a bit of change any way?? What’s a penny?” I would then have to sit down and counsel the staff on the pitfalls of covering even the smallest of losses.

I would start with “the case” example which began with a store bleeding massive amounts of product. Since this retailer’s losses were mostly a result (about 75%) of internal theft we knew it was more than likely an internal job. We began our employee theft investigation by auditing daily and weekly inventory counts as well as the over/short cash logs. We were attempting to narrow the focus of the employee theft investigation to ascertain how the product was leaving the store as well as who was responsible. We had to stop the bleeding as well as pinpoint the thief before they realized we were on to them. One thing this store manager made sure to do was to keep very detailed inventory counts and logs. There was no “slush” fund in this store. A review of the cash over/short log showed a very interesting trend. One employee was having consistent small shortages, a few pennies here, a little change there. This was nothing that an untrained eye would view as anything other than a training opportunity.

Another interesting fact was the inventory losses tended to happen when this employee was working. There were other employees in the store that also worked consistently when the inventory losses occurred. We knew this was a case of internal theft. I also had a very good idea of what was happening but decided to install a pinhole camera over the register to confirm my suspicions. Three days later the employee theft investigation was over. The employee in question was caught red handed doing what is typically called “drop sales”. He would sell an unsuspecting customer product for cash, accept the cash, use a “no sale” to open the cash register drawer issue change then close the cash drawer and never give the customer a receipt. After the customer left the store the employee did another no sale and took the cash the customer had given him for the product.

So I asked the store manager after he saw an example of this on video, “what are we short?” He immediately stated “the product”, I asked “what else?” , he was confused for a bit and then the light bulb went on over his head “We are short the change he gave the customer”. I asked the store manager how we would have been able to narrow the focus of the employee theft investigation to the product leaving via the register area if we had not had the cash over/short log. He had no answer. I assured him we would have been able to figure it out but the investigation would have gone on a heck of a lot longer and the losses would have been piling up while the investigation continued. The employee admitted to several thousand dollars in product theft via the drop sale method. This example of employee theft proved to be a very good training example for the entire company. “What’s a penny?” is a question store management learned NEVER to ask.

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

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help you stop Employee Theft and Internal Theft problems and help with your Employee Theft Investigation.

One of the biggest issues a business can encounter is rampant internal theft. Most small businesses do not factor in shrink losses into their business plan when laying out a strategy for hopeful success. These same excited business owners can’t wait to flip on the “open” sign but many do not and have not any idea the problems employee theft can and more likely will cause them.

Having a shoplifter enter your business and steal $50.00 in product on one occasion is a scary enough thought ; imagine when you do the math as to how much you have to actually sell to make up that $50.00 loss. Now hypothetically envision you hired that shoplifter, gave them keys to your business, your stockroom and your registers. Visualize that every shift that “employee” works they steal $50.00. Would you have any idea how to conduct an employee theft investigation? Would you have any idea that it was employee theft? Would you be blind in trust of your employees that you would not even think to consider the losses could be a result of internal theft? Let that soak in a bit because this is what happens to business owners everyday and many never recover. As stated earlier internal theft is the biggest business killer on the block.

So what can you do? Preferably you start your business plan including loss prevention in the initial budget, but what if you didn’t? Can you catch up? Is it too late? The first thing to do is access the controls you currently have in place. Start with your hiring process. Do you have a pre employment screening process? Do you conduct employee/criminal background checks? If not then how do you know you aren’t hiring the “shoplifter” we discussed earlier? Do you ask pertinent questions during the job interview process? Do you take notes and conduct follow up interviews to flesh out any potential issues? Do you have a new hire orientation explaining that your company conducts employee theft investigations and prosecutes anyone caught stealing?

What physical loss prevention tools do you have currently? Do you have cameras? Where are the cameras pointing? Are they set up over the registers to deter employee theft? Are they set up in your stockroom to aid in potential employee theft investigations? Do you have any “pin hole” camera kits to aid in employee theft investigations? Do you have anyone employed who is trained to conduct an employee theft investigation? Do you have daily inventory category counts of product to monitor losses? Do you have daily register audits? Do you ensure employees count in and out on their own registers? Do you conduct bag and pocket checks whenever an employee leaves your business?

It is never to late to take steps to deter internal theft. The key is setting up a strategy that starts with the hiring and orientation, then set up your physical controls (cameras/audits etc). Deterrence does not work on everyone so it is important to ensure that you always consider every loss incurred as being perpetrated by an employee. You should take steps to narrow the focus of when the losses occurred, who was working and who had access to the items stolen. At this point you can utilize your daily reports and cameras to catch the employee who is committing the loss. Once you have gathered the evidence and obtain a confession (I recommend that only a trained interviewer conduct a loss prevention interview). Then it is very important to follow through with conviction and termination. That will also help deter other employees from conducting employee theft.

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

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help you stop Employee Theft and Internal Theft problems and help with your Employee Theft Investigation.

When it comes to internal theft there is nothing more irritating, more troublesome, than the theft of supplies.  Many employees do it; some deliberately, some accidentally, but it is so commonplace it is almost universally accepted as a simple fact of life regardless of the business.  The problem with it being so ‘accepted’ is that it is almost always disregarded and usually goes completely unpunished.  It is that kind of mentality that forces companies to waste millions of dollars on the standard supplies they need to function every day.

Not only is there the waste factor, but there is the inherent frustration aspect of your business being short, or completely out of, a supply when it really needs it.  I can recall numerous instances where pens, paper towels, cleaning supplies, and even toilet paper suddenly went missing only to be discovered later that an employee had pilfered an obscene amount for their personal use.

A recent incident involved our warehouse becoming short on the store supplies of paper towels and water jugs for the water coolers.  At first it was just once in a while, but eventually entire stockpiles were going missing within days of shipments coming in.  After a lengthy stake-out and an employee theft investigation we found that a ten-year veteran of the company had been moving large amounts of supplies to his vehicle over the course of his shifts at the beginning of each week and stockpiling them at his personal residence.  When it was acknowledged as a case of internal theft and he was brought in for an interview he denied any wrongdoing even when confronted with hard video evidence.  Eventually he admitted that he had been stealing supplies for years but claimed that he shouldn’t be punished since ‘everyone did it’.

Don’t allow your employees to think ANY kind of employee theft is okay.  Send them a message that stealing is wrong even if everyone does it.

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

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help you stop Internal Theft and Employee Theft problems and help with your Employee Theft Investigation.

I have found this issue a lot lately and it has caused me a great deal of concern; loss prevention agents not fully prosecuting those found guilty at the end of an Employee theft investigation.  It is a problem that has created something of an unhealthy precedent in a few of my stores; employees see no consequences for being caught committing employee theft. Just as with any type of crime, if there is no solid punishment for those caught then there are no real consequences.

Some may say that obviously if someone is guilty of internal theft they will lose their job and that is consequence enough but you have to consider this point: if someone is stealing from the company they work for do you honestly think they care about their job in the first place?  The answer is most undoubtedly ‘no’.

Every time I have finished out an employee theft investigation and the interrogation has come to a head, that point where the guilty either break down completely or spew profanities and hate there is always a good eighty percent chance I will hear the words ‘I don’t need this ******** job anyway’ or some variation.

Make sure that when looking for internal theft, once you have a solid lead and the evidence is there to take down a suspect, that you don’t hold back.  Every time you can say, without doubt, that an employee is stealing you use the situation as an example to others that they won’t only lose their jobs but also suffer civil loss and even an arrest or jail time (if your jurisdiction and the crime provides for such things).

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

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help you stop Employee Theft and Internal Theft problems and help with your Employee Theft Investigation.

I have heard a lot of stories involving employee theft.  Some of them are immensely far-fetched while others are so crazy they have to be true.  This story is one of the latter.

A colleague of mine was having an issue with video games going missing in his store.  He had a camera in the area where they were kept but it was a still and had no way of being repositioned to a better locale so he tried everything from maintaining a physical LP presence there to rigging up dummy cameras to possibly scare off this mysterious thief.  His big break in the case came one night while doing a check of the stock rooms.  He found plastic wrappers and security cases for some video games stashed beneath a shelf in a stock room used for house wares.  With the new knowledge that it was a case of employee theft he now had to think of who it was and how he could catch the in the act.

Unfortunately the stock room provided no place to put a covert camera, nor did he have any solid leads as to who the culprit was.  Eventually he came up with an idea to apprehend the suspect that was so insane that he didn’t tell anyone else what method he was using.

Using a large cardboard box, one normally containing a do-it-yourself cabinet, he cut out a few discreet holes so he could sit in it and see outside it into the room around him.  He sat in the box for six shifts straight until his employee theft case came to a close when the suspect, a guy on his receiving team, showed up in the stock room, games in hand, and started opening them.  My colleague was so excited he leapt out of the box scaring the thief half to death in the process.

It may not have been the most practical employee theft investigation, but it worked.

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

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help you stop Employee Theft and Internal Theft problems and help with your Employee Theft Investigation.

An employee theft investigation is a situation most business owners and managers are uncomfortable with. This is understandable since this is a criminal and civil situation that the average businessperson rarely deals with. When an employee commits internal theft by stealing cash, merchandise, time or supplies they commit a clear crime.

Internal theft in the “real world” happens in every business with employees. We would like to think that the person we hired would not steal from us. But the sad fact is that many do. Internal theft also known as employee theft is often committed by some of the most “trusted” employees.  The problem is management’s definition of “trust”. Many managers and owners use personal trust in a business environment.

Business trust involves something called “trust but verify”. A good supervisor prevents employee theft and thus the need for an employee theft investigation by not simply assuming that work tasks are accomplished the way you want them. Following up on what and how an employee for instance is checking in stock keeps them on track and cuts down on mistakes and let’s the employee know you are involved. A simple audit of what the employee is doing or has done with feed back to them both positive and negative lets the employee know that any dishonest actions have a good chance of being discovered. Many times employee theft takes root when the employee feels that no one cares or knows what they do.

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

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help you stop Employee theft and Internal theft problems and help with your Employee theft investigation.