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

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 of his 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 store-room used for house wares.  With the new knowledge that it was a case of internal theft he now had to think of who it was and how he could catch the in the act.

Unfortunately the store-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 internal 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

Another tactic commonly used to spur employee theft investigations is to complete end of shift observations. While sporadic observation of an employee throughout their shift is recommended, it is not until the final minutes before the employee’s break, lunch or shift end that they will typically conduct employee theft activity and conceal the merchandise that they are after.

I was observing an employee during the middle of her shift when a typical lunch break would occur. The employee walked to the break room and punched out. She then took her jacket and purse and headed out of the store. On her way out she stopped in a department and bent down several times, which appeared to be very suspicious of internal theft. The employee then walked out of the building and to her car. I observed her emptying several items into her car before returning to the store, and once I checked the car I could see through the windows that there were several items in the vehicle that appeared to be from our store. After that I decided to observe the subject for the rest of the day. She didn’t conduct any other employee theft during the bulk of her shift, however she did occasionally place merchandise in a fairly secluded area of the store that did not belong there. When it was time for her to go, just as she had before, the employee punched out and grabbed her things. As she was walking through the store the employee stepped into the department where she had previously placed merchandise and bent down several times. After she left the building I found that the merchandise she had staged was missing. On her next shift we interviewed the employee. She admitted to the internal theft and we got a full confession including much more merchandise than what we had observed being taken.

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

When people hear that a coworker was discharged for theft, it’s immediately assumed that that person was stealing money or was caught sneaking unpaid goods out of the store. But employee theft can take on many forms and doesn’t just refer to an associate taking merchandise or slipping themselves cash from the register. In fact, one of the most prevalent ways that a staff member can cause a loss to their employer isn’t even viewed by most associates as a form of internal theft; they assume it’s a policy violation addressed by Human Resources. This often overlooked form of shrinkage is known as discount abuse.

Although most corporations and employers outline their policies for newly hired associates, most of them don’t remember the rules they’re expected to abide by. They may have been advised that sharing their discount with unauthorized family members and friends is considered a form of employee theft, but unless they work in loss prevention, chances are this won’t be a fact that they’ll concern themselves with. On the other hand, they may just assume they can’t get caught for it. While employed as an agent for one retailer, an associate’s brother come up to her while she was talking to my boss and me and he handed her a pair of shoes he picked out and money to buy them with while we were standing right there! Needless to say, I don’t think she forgot our company’s policy after that.

Although discount abuse cases aren’t as exciting to investigate as a merchandise theft situation, this form of internal theft has the potential to cost employers to miss out on profits. I’ve been asked many times by family members and friends to share the benefit of working for a clothing retailer with them. None of them have been pleased to hear that I can’t share the perks because I can’t commit any form of employee theft if I’m expected to catch my coworkers for it!

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

There are many tactics that investigators will use to topple an employee theft investigation into fruition. One of those employee theft investigation tactics is called baiting. Baiting is a great technique to identify internal theft that is occurring in your building while controlling where the theft occurs. Typically baiting will be used after finding empty packages or other evidence of internal theft that is taking place in a stockroom or other employee only area. The premise of the strategy is to stage desirable merchandise in a location that can be remotely monitored.

The first step is to identify a dark corner or location that would feel safe for employee theft to take place. The location should have low traffic and feel secluded and safe from onlookers. There should not be any visible cameras in the vicinity. Once you have identified the perfect location, install a covert camera that can clearly see the site.

Now that you have a covertly monitored location, place one or two items in the site that are in clear view of the covert camera. The items placed in the location should be merchandise that would be desirable and easy to conceal. Small items such as fragrance, video games, sunglasses, etc. are all good possible options. It is also recommended to identify which types of empty packages and tags are being found in the employee only areas of your building and use similar merchandise. Record the UPC and item description in order to track the staged merchandise.

After baiting the covert camera it is important to monitor the area frequently for activity. Once the merchandise is discovered to be missing you can review video to identify the disposition of the items. Your merchandise will have either been returned to its proper location by an honest employee, or you will have identified the person responsible for the employee theft occurring in your building.

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

By now we have all heard of extreme couponing. It is where consumers go into a store with binders full of coupons and try to get out of the register by paying little to no money at all for items.

Overall, it’s really not a bad idea. Everyone wants to save a buck, and manufacturers are making it easier than ever before to get coupons. You can find them in newspapers, on line and off of social media sites. Who would think that it could ever lead to an employee theft investigation?

The key to proper couponing is to know your companies policies and to read the coupon’s restrictions. If a coupon says it can only be used for one item, employees shouldn’t take four coupons for that one item. If it says the customer has to buy two items, do the math, they must buy two.

In a recent employee theft investigation my employees were taking it a step further. They would take a coupon for an item with a big dollar off. They would then buy that item. Actually, what they did, was to buy a trial size of that item, which was against the coupons restrictions. Hence becoming internal theft.

They would then cash out the difference for the dollar amount, thus making money. A few ways this was costing us:

 

1. Coupons do not have a value. No one should make money off of it.
2. Because the coupon was used incorrectly, the vendors were not paying us back for the coupon.
3. The shelves were now empty of these items. Causing customer complaints and a lack of sales.

Long story short, coupons- good. Employee theft– bad.

Take some time to make sure your employees are aware of the correct and incorrect coupon policies. Or else you might end up with some employee theft. You might just save yourself the trouble of an employee theft investigation.

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

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

 

Internal theft is one of the greatest challenges to any business.  When a business hires someone to join their ranks they are showing faith in that person’s skills, experience, and trustworthiness.  Unfortunately, despite lengthy interview processes and extensive background checks there are still individuals who choose to exploit their positions within your business to ‘earn a little extra’.

Methods of employee theft investigation vary in size, scope, and style.  It can be as small as a cashier skimming a few dollars from the register every so often to a team of warehouse workers ensuring a few flat-screen TVs go ‘missing from inventory’ only to be found later in their living rooms.  As far as catching such dishonest employees is concerned it takes patience, skill, and a little bit of luck.

Conducting an employee theft investigation starts with knowing where to look to look for employee theft.  You may need to comb through register deposit records (over and short reports) or perform regular inventory counts (such as perpetual counts on important items).  Your lead into a potential internal theft case could literally fall into your lap without you even needing to go looking for it.

Whatever the starting point of your investigation is you cannot expect immediate returns on your work like you would with a shoplifter.  Employee theft investigations require an investment of time, be it from a single Loss Prevention Detective or a whole team.  Even when an employee has been caught with their hand in the proverbial cookie jar it doesn’t mean it is case closed.  There is the follow-up, the interrogation, which may lead to the admission of a larger theft or even the implication of others within the workforce.

One other thing to consider when it comes to employee theft investigations; don’t keep anyone in your workforce from being scrutinized.  More often than not it’s the ones whom you trust the most that are the biggest internal threats.

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

 

There are many things that employees can steal, but the most sought after item is cash.  Unlike merchandise, it can be used anywhere.  Cash is often the easiest item to steal.  It does not have sensor tags applied, it is small and employees handle it all day.  So how is internal theft of cash happening at your business and what are you doing to stop it?

There are several ways that employee theft of cash can occur and there are various things to consider when conducting an employee theft investigation into these losses.  The most basic is taking money directly from the drawer.  You will notice the effects of this internal theft the next day when your accounting department shows missing money from the drawer.  When you conduct your employee theft investigation I suggest starting with reviewing “No Sale” functions.  Generally speaking, most associates do not take cash during an actual transaction as there are witnesses (i.e. the customer) present.  Instead, many will wait until no one is around, conduct a “No Sale” function and then pocket the cash.  They think the absence of witnesses helps them get away with it, but in reality it is usually easy to pinpoint.

Another way is by conducting voids.  This is much harder to catch, but possible.  In this employee theft scam the associate will void a transaction and take the cash.  Since the register thinks the sale did not happen then it will not show short since the cash “should not have been there” according to the register.  Again, routinely look for associates conducting a lot of voids followed by “No Sales”.  Since they voided the transaction the cashier has to use the “No Sale” function to open the drawer and make change for the customer.  You can also just pull random voids and review the video to see if the merchandise, in fact, stays in the store or does the customer take it.  If the customer takes it then the cashier is stealing from you.

There is no easy solution to internal theft, but a quality employee theft investigation will help eliminate a problem and prevent future loss.

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

There are many times that it is necessary to perform an employee theft investigation in your business.  The sad reality is that employees steal … a lot!!  In fact, most studies agree that internal theft (also called employee theft) accounts for 50-70% of retail shrink.  One of the hardest parts of the job is investigating employees because we all want to trust our employees.  It is very hard to accept that one or more are going behind your back and stealing, but it is the reality.  In order to catch internal theft an employee theft investigation must be done when money and merchandise start missing.

There are several things to do during an employee theft investigation.  The first is to review reports.  Many losses can be solved by tracking cash over and shorts, reviewing refund and void trends as well as researching ordering and inventory change histories.  When these don’t work then we turn to cameras.  Cameras are a great tool at catching employee theft. Whether it is by using standard cameras on the sales floor or covert cameras in offices, these tools can often times conclusively show you who your thief is.  Unfortunately, there are times when none of these work.  I have on several occasions found myself at wits end having a strong suspicion of an employee, but not having actual proof.  Here is where an Integrity Shop can be a benefit.

In order test a suspected employee’s integrity you can create a circumstance for an employee to do the “right thing” and thus prove one way or the other what type of integrity they have.  You may put some extra money in the till or drop a gift card by the register and then watch cameras to see what that employee does with the extra money or gift card.  What they should do is turn it in since it does not belong to them.  If they take the money or card then they have proven they cannot be trusted and that gives you leverage when talking to them about the other shortages showing up in their work station.

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

Exception Based Reporting can be loss prevention’s best friend. The principal behind the software is to weed out the transactions that are most indicative to internal theft to give you a platter full of possible leads. The key then is to identify which of those transactions is actually employee theft.

Many of the transactions that populate will be due to training errors or transactions where the employee was simply trying to do what is best for the customer. Obviously we do not want to punish our employees for those sorts of situations; however this tool can be used as a good way to identify possible training flaws as well. Once we have narrowed it down to the best internal theft candidates we can begin our employee theft investigation. Using the tools this software has to offer we can conduct searches of the employee’s purchase and return history, giving us a snapshot of any potential transactions were the employee may have received unauthorized discounts from another employee.

We can see if the employee is returning more merchandise than they are buying, which can be an indicator that the employee may be stealing merchandise to return it for a profit. These are just a few of the many employee theft situations that we can identify. Once we have exhausted the employee’s purchase and return history we can investigate the employee’s point of sale history. We can track credit card numbers and other tenders to identify if the employee is completing a large amount of transactions for any particular customers. This can help to identify situations where the employee is under ringing or passing off merchandise to friends. We can identify trends in discounts given to customers or instances where the employee is giving dollar off discounts in order to pocket cash from a transaction. Again, these are just a few examples of the many employee theft investigations that we can conduct to help identify internal theft. With use in conjunction with video review Exception Based Reporting can be a hugely beneficial tool with your employee theft investigations.

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