While working as a loss prevention manger, I witness acts of employee theft almost on a monthly basis and in some months more often.  I recall one case of employee theft that had me baffled.  After observing a pattern of the same customers purchasing large amounts of merchandise at one specific associate’s register.  When this associate would be working without fail a group of individuals would come in and go through the associate register to be checked out.  My years of experience in retail said that something was not right and that this might be a case of employee theft.  This instinct, lead me to begin an employee theft investigation.

During the employee theft investigation, I watched the subject process the transaction of the group that had been seen only using her her register to checkout. The transaction looked normal, the associate appeared to pass all the merchandise across the scanner and the customers appeared to tender their payment.  In an effort to fully analyze the transaction and conduct a thorough employee theft investigation, I reviewed the electronic journal for that register transaction.  What I saw was that none of the merchandise observed on camera being scanned by the associate matched the merchandise shown on the receipt.

When I concluded the employee theft investigation, I interviewed the associate about why the merchandise being scanned did not match the merchandise going out the door. I ask the associate were they aware of our internal theft policies and had they committed internal theft while working at the store.  The associate admitted to committing internal theft while being employed and said that they used the price labels from less expensive products to scan the more expensive items. The associate admitted to taking about $3500.00 in merchandise from the store.  After identifying the associate accomplices in the surveillance video, the police were able to recover some of the stolen items.

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

If your business is experiencing unexplained shortages, you may want to take an inside look for what is missing.  Simply put the problem may be an employee theft issue.  Businesses are always looking outside their doors to explain inventory shortages.  As a loss prevention professional, I know how hard it can be for a manager to look at their staff.  Internal theft is real and occurs more often than managers may think.  Managers should look at their staff with objectivity and look at the behavior and key performance indicators in an effort to get an informed assessment of their staff.

Taking a look at your employees does not mean that there is an issue of employee theft being committed by the employees.  An employee theft investigation can allow for an internal theft analysis of the inventory shortages to be done.  An employee theft investigation can help pinpoint t where losses are occurring.  The results may or may not be determined to be the result of employee theft.  However, when unexplained shortages occur, it has been my experience that they are almost always indicative of employee theft.

Time is always of the essence as businesses, especially retailer have a tremendous amount of exposure to acts of theft.  Retailers open their doors everyday to the public and leave them unlocked and open until they close.  If there is internal theft occurring it could have the potential to destroy any chance for a retailer to make a profit from the sale of their merchandise.  It is a positive when a retailer assesses their internal operations.

As a loss prevention profession with over ten years of experience, I implore every retailer to take a look inside their business.  An employee theft investigation can yield reliable and pertinent information about your staff work performance or lack of.  It is imperative to act and act quickly to remedy internal problems.

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

Retailers assume loss from a variety of sources.  Generally speaking, internal theft (AKA employee theft) accounts for the majority of loss incurred by major retailers.  When we talk about shoplifters we find that ORC or Organized Retail Crime networks account for the bulk of our external losses.  So what happens when the ORC rings and employees team up?

The answer is the store will be closing soon unless something is done.  Employee theft and ORC on their own can kill a store, but the combination of the two is devastating.  Something that I have been finding more often when conducting ORC investigations is that they are using an “inside man” (or woman) in order to help them get away with their crime.  The employee can be useful in many ways.  On the surface they can alert the shoplifters when LP or management is not around.  I remember working at one store and it always seemed that within an hour of me leaving the store would call and say they had a grab and run.  It became obvious that they were being tipped off by someone inside.

Other ways that employees can assist ORC groups is by stealing themselves and/or manipulating inventory systems to cover the losses that are going on.  They can also alter prices so that their counterparts pay pennies on the dollar for product and then they can resell them at much higher rates.  Whatever method they use, the employees in our stores can cause a lot of damage.  They only way to prevent this is to use a routine employee theft investigation to rout out the bad apples.  An employee theft investigation can be aimed at a specific employee or can be a wide net cast to see if red flags pop up in the store.  Either way, internal theft and ORC can ruin a business if left unchecked.

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

It is interesting to try and figure out all the ways employees commit internal theft at their place of work.  Internal theft is rampant in retail organizations.  In one year working as a loss prevention manager I can remember closing four internal theft cases for about $5900.00 within three weeks of accepting a job at a major retailer.

These cases involved four associates who committed internal theft for no other reason than, it was easy.  The associates were stealing in so many ways; it was hard to conduct an investigation as I would have to constantly leave the office to follow the associates.  The employee theft investigation showed that the associates were having cash shortages on their registers.  The associates were also showing up on the exception reports for having lower than average transaction totals and higher than average refund totals.  The employee theft investigation involved and in depth look at the associates registers operations over the past six months.

Once the employee theft investigation was completed, it appeared the associates had given away merchandise, taken cash from the register, switched tickets on merchandise they purchased and conducted fraudulent refunds.  After seeing the extent of the employee theft, I decided to have another loss prevention manager come in and conduct the interviews with me.

During the interview the associates were made aware that they had been the subject of an employee theft investigation and that the investigation found conclusive evidence of employee theft.  The associates were asked to explain the reasons why they committed the employee theft and they responded, because it was easy.  Given the extent of the employee theft, we concluded that the confessed amount was probably about $50000.00 less than what they actually took from the store.  These cases had involved

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

Throughout my tenure in Loss Prevention, I have seen just about every way that employee theft or internal theft occurs. The nice thing is, once you know the basics, resolving an employee theft investigation is relatively simple. Most dishonest employees are caught because the get bold and think that they are the only ones to have ever tried that method before.

More often than not, the employee will try to find merchandise that does not have any sort of hard RF tag or a soft RF label that will sound the alarm as they leave. They might try to conceal a small item on their person, such as a piece of jewelry or a wallet. They might even try to wear an item out like a jacket. Larger items may go into bags or purses (having mandatory bag checks as employees leave will eliminate most of this sort of internal theft).

If the employee does try to steal an item with an RF tag or Label, they are now faced with the difficult task of trying to remove the tags without destroying the merchandise. I have conducted many employee theft investigations because I saw an employee go to a register, without any customers present, and remove and deactivate these tags. While they thought they were being discreet, they were actually a blinding light to a knowing eye.

Most of the cases with this sort of employee theft admitted that having the tags made it difficult to steal the merchandise. It was so difficult that unless the items were something extremely valuable to them, it was not worth trying to steal. The Checkpoint System helped to keep the honest employees honest, while providing cues to detect the one who weren’t.

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

It’s hard enough to think that one of your own employees has been stealing from you. It’s even harder to think that often, employee theft involves either multiple employees or an employee working with someone outside the company like a friend, a relative, or even a vendor.

Benjamin Franklin once said that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It is so true when you are trying to prevent internal theft from happening. One of the most common forms of prevention is to use inventory control products like Checkpoint’s RF tags and labels. Their use sends a clear message to your employees that you are watching and you will not tolerate internal theft.

I remember an employee theft investigation where a cashier was ringing up her boyfriend. Underneath his cart was about $300 dollars in product that she did not charge him for. Because she did not want to draw attention to the items, she left them under the cart, and did not realize that the items had RF tags on them. When the boyfriend tried to leave, he set off the alarms at the door alerting everyone around to the situation.

Another employee theft investigation I resolved started out by watching an employee going up to a register with his arms full of merchandise and started to deactivate the clothing RF tags. The clue that made me realize I was looking at a case of employee theft was that there were no customers around. He then bagged up the merchandise and walked out the door. Had there not been tags to remove, I may not have been able to detect his activity.

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

It is a well known fact in the retail community that employee theft can result in major losses long before it is discovered.  Retailers go to great lengths to insulate themselves from becoming victims of employee theft.  Background checks and drug screening are some of the measures retailers’ employee to ensure that they hire honest and talented individuals.  However, even with the utilization of these measures, employee theft still persists in the retail environment causing millions in loss revenue to employers.

Internal theft has consistently accounted for the majority of retail losses.  The only way to effectively combat this pervasive problem is to employ the help of dedicated loss prevention professionals.  The use of an expert trained in loss prevention, allows a business owner to focus on their bottom line, while ensuring that if there is an issue of internal theft, they have an experienced professional conducting the employee theft investigation.  Conducting an employee theft investigation is a complicated process.  Employees who have come to a business to steal from that business are aware of the many ways in which their employers are vulnerable to theft.

Investigating employee theft may consist of dedicated surveillance or exception report analysis.  To the untrained eye the employee may appear to be working normally when in fact they are robbing the business blind.  An experienced loss prevention professional is able to look beyond what is seen and determine what is actually going on.  In this economy internal theft is on the rise.  Many employees are staying on jobs they would rather leave, but with choices being limited they are resigned to make the most out of where they are at, or take the most from where they are at.  Every employer must have a reliable partner that knows how to conduct an effective employee theft investigation.

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

The benefit of stopping employee theft as soon as it is suspected is enormous for the retailer or business owner.  Employee theft depletes profits and also the morale of associates who are aware of the theft, but choose not to get involve or notify their supervisor.  In my past experience I have seen entire work teams improve their performance simply by seeing a dishonest associate finally get caught.  Employee theft is not isolated to just monetary profits.  Poor morale and a poorly performing work team can also be a consequence of internal theft.

Internal theft places honest employees in a rather awkward position.  Many hard working and honest associates do not want to get involved and allow dishonest associates to continue to steal from the company.  Sometimes these associates are afraid or do not think they will be taken seriously by management if they come forth.  Internal theft is often seen by other employees before it is ever brought to the attention of management.  Associates in an organization need to know that every report of theft will be taken seriously and handled confidentially. An employer should start an employee theft investigation at once to determine the validity of the report and the scope of the associate dishonesty.

An employee theft investigation is first begun as an answer to a question about a specific incident or transaction.  The purpose of an employee theft investigation is to answer those questions and to determine whether suspicions of theft are validated based on the evidence.  As a loss prevention professional, I have solved many dishonest associate theft cases because I had honest employees share their suspicions and concerns. I have never had an employee theft investigation that I conducted based on employee tip to not identify theft or a training issue. It is imperative that a retailer have a program in place to help honest associates feel they can share their concerns about their fellow employees and it be handled confidentially.

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

Unfortunately, many retailers are asking the question, “Where did it all go?”.  The answer is disturbing but true, you paid someone to take it.  Employee theft is one of the primary reasons retailers experience millions in losses each year.  It seems comical really to think you actually pay someone to take advantage of your business.  Employee theft can be devastating and often the extent of the damage is not known unto it is too late to correct.  In my experience employee theft has caused many stores to go out of business as they were simply not able to produce profits amid the extensive and enormous amount of internal theft.

It is an elaborate game of cops and robbers and unfortunately there are more robbers than cops.  Internal theft continues to rise at an alarming rate.  Employers are using every opportunity they can find to take from their employers.  In an environment where consumers are spending less, business can not allow profit to simply walk out of their stores.  Internal theft has to be addressed and corrected, if a business is going to continue to be viable.  Employers must become aware of the many ways in which employees choose to take from their employers. The way in which transactions are conducted at the point of sale registers allow employees to take what they want without being noticed.

An effective employee theft investigation can help set an employer’s mind at ease and all without alarming a suspected dishonest employee.  Loss prevention professionals conduct thousands of internal investigations every month and are able to identify theft and resolve the matter quickly. An effective and well handled employee theft investigation does more than identify a dishonest employee; it helps prevent other employees from thinking that they can take from their employer. It is imperative if an employer has a suspicion that employee theft may be occurring at their business that they begin an employee theft investigation immediately. This will prevent you from having to answer the unfortunate question of, “Where did it all go?”

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

In the retail industry external theft or shoplifting as it is commonly known is a part of doing business. Anyone who has worked in the retail industry has dealt with or actually seen a shoplifting incident during their career.  But the one problem that every retail industry dreads is internal theft. This issue causes retailer to deal now with employee theft problems. It is bad enough to worry about those individuals that come from the outside to steal, but now you have to conduct Employee theft investigation inside your organization.

You now have the employee’s that you count on to give proper customer service and represent your organization are now the subject of Employee theft investigation. During my career I have conducted hundreds on internal theft investigations. Most of the employee theft subjects are new employee’s that have just started, but you have those employees that have been with the organization for many years. So the first question that I always ask is why? Why after so many years would you steal from the company the answer varies? But the one constant during the employee theft investigation is that they didn’t think they would get caught.

Many internal theft issues can be prevented by following the safeguards that have been put in place. The minute these policies are not followed the chance for an employee theft incident to happen is imminent. So anytime you think that you can break protocol to finish your job faster. When you don’t take the time to log down who enters a security cage or who has the keys to that cage. How much money have you just cost your organization by not following policy.

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