A small business owner was talking to me about his concerns with one of his employees. There were major discrepancies with his store bank accounts and his accounts receivable never seemed to balance out. He suspected that something wasn’t right, and there was only one employee who was responsible for those accounts. Even though he didn’t outright say the words, he hinted that he was concerned about employee theft.

All of the arrows seemed to point in one very obvious direction- this employee was stealing. The owner, however, did not want to believe that was the case. The employee had been with him for about seven years, and he trusted her completely. That was why she had been given a position with so much responsibility and access to financial means.

This employee was leaving the company and then moving across the country. They had been planning this move for about six or seven months at this point, and had just a few short weeks left. Even though this owner had suspected for a while that this employee theft was going on, he just now wanted to do something about it.

I let him know that whatever he decided to do, he needed to do it quickly. Employee theft cases are much harder to prosecute and recover money from if the employee has left the company. Many judges will view this sort of employee theft investigation as a form of retaliation due to the employees notice to leave the company.

For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal 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.

It is not uncommon in an internal theft situation that more than one method of theft is uncovered. In one particular case, we had two employees working together, or so we thought.

One employee would ring up the other employee. Upon review, not all of the merchandise brought to the POS had been sold. Instead of all ten items being sold, only one or two would be and the rest of the items would walk out the door. This would cause a shortage of eight items, and of course the items that were sold were the lowest dollar amount out of all of them.

We later discovered that the extra items were then refunded for store credit. In essence, we were getting the hit by the theft of the item, and then the refund of the item. 

Had we stopped our investigation at the pass offs at the register, we would have missed the refunds. We also would have missed that there was a third employee conducting the refunds, because they knew the product was stolen.

Once we started observing these employees, we found out that all three of them were actually stealing product and passing off inventory to the others.

Without a thorough employee theft investigation, we would never have realized just how far the losses were going. The internal theft we started with was an important stepping stone to see how the entire puzzle would unfold.

For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal 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.

An employee bag check is an operational control designed to reduce and eliminate employee theft. Employees are required to have their personal belongings searched prior to their leaving on a lunch break or at the end of their shift. Depending on the specific process outlined, an employee bag check can require multiple steps or parts to it.

The most basic bag check is that all employees have someone look in their personal bags and purses any time the employee leaves the store. This should include everyone, including managers. A closing manager should have another employee look in their bag before they leave. It is both a deterrent for the managers and leading by example. Having a manager’s bag checked shows that no one is beyond the reach of this policy.

Some companies order a clear purse for employees to use while at work.  It is another way to deter employee theft. Everyone can see exactly what is inside the bag from any angle. This may or may not work for your store. Some employees may feel like their privacy is violated because everyone, not just a manger, can see the employee’s personal items. These bags are also an additional expense that may cost you more than they are worth.

Along with just having an employee’s bag checked, purchases should also be checked against the receipt. Employees may be tempted to add additional items to their purchase after the transaction is done, thinking no one will question a bag of merchandise that they saw the employees pay for earlier in the shift.

For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal 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.

Most recruiters and hiring managers will tell you with an overwhelming response that the single biggest reason why employees come to them for a new position, or a new job altogether, is because they feel underappreciated.

When employees are not appreciated they will look for somewhere else to go. If their efforts are not being rewarded through praise or a raise they begin to question why they should even bother putting in the effort.

This is where most employees look at one of two options. They will either eliminate the position they are in through a lateral transfer, promotion, or leave the company entirely, or they will develop their own compensation for their troubles and hard work.

When employees begin to feel like they have been robbed out of other compensations for their hard work, they may devise a plan to compensate themselves.

Some employees begin to steal time. They may start taking longer lunch breaks, leaving early or coming in late. They do not have the same loyalty and drive to be the best and their hours worked can start to reflect that change.

Others will begin to take with them company supplies, whether they need them or not. Extra pens, paper, can eventually escalate into company computers, tablets or other electronics.

Even more employees will steal cash or steal merchandise. They might take it directly, or hand the products off to friends or family.

For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal 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.

Internal theft, by ways of refund fraud, is hard to pinpoint because an employee theft investigation starts out as inventory losses, not as cash losses.

Here’s how it works: an employee who has access to conduct refunds selects items of merchandise for a fraudulent refund. The merchandise might be an item that is in the area because a customer refunded it earlier in the day.

During employee theft investigations, we have also seen employees write down item numbers from merchandise that they want to refund for a specific reason. 

Maybe they know the item is below a certain dollar amount that won’t be researched. Perhaps it is an item that is shoplifted frequently, so the employee thinks any losses they create will be lumped in with the rest of the shoplifting losses.

However they pick the items to refund, the next step is the same. They will refund the item, forge any signatures that are required, and take the money that was refunded. 

It could be cash or a store credit, or even a refund back to his or her own credit card- depending upon what the POS system will allow them to do. Because the refund is processed through the POS, there will not be a drawer shortage to alert you to the fraud. Instead, you will see inventory losses as a direct result of the refund.

By researching internal theft from inventory losses, you might be able to follow the path back to their refunds.

For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal 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.

Embezzlement is a nasty form of employee theft. It is one of the hardest to detect in small businesses, and yet causes some of the biggest dollar losses out of all of the ways an employee can steal.

It is especially difficult to detect because the employees that embezzle are ones that have been working the system for years. In fact, because they have been around for years (generally two or more), they are often the ones that have been promoted to jobs with more responsibility and access, and are in a trusted management position.

Frequently, we catch on to these embezzlers because of an employee tip. We can also catch on if we notice an employee that is living beyond their means. If they are spending money that you know you don’t pay them enough to have, they might be supplementing their income elsewhere- like from your coffers.

Embezzlers have spent hours figuring out your systems and their inefficiencies. They have been there long enough to know what your hot points are and what things are routinely let slide. From there they devise a plan that works around what you watch and what you don’t.

In order to reduce employee theft from embezzlement maintain a check and balance system for everything you do. Have a periodic audit or reconciliation, even if it is once a month. Have someone else do the audits, someone who was not involved in the transactions. The same goes for accounts receivable, and accounts payable. When the same person controls both, and you have no checkpoints in place, you open the door wide open to be taken advantage of.

For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal 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.

In my latest employee theft investigation, I had a manager that was stealing cash. It took us a while before we figured out what was going on because we didn’t show any cash losses on our daily till reports.

What we were showing losses on was for inventory. Progressively, our inventory costs were going up and our sales were taking a minor decline.
It was by chance that we started the employee theft investigation. We had just received a shipment of a particular new product. A few days later, we were out of stock on that item, but we didn’t see the sales we should have on it.

After beginning to review the journal tape, we noticed that at the end of the day there had been several voided cash transactions. Many of which had involved this new item.

 When we started to suspect employee theft, we began to review journal tapes from other days. We noticed a pattern. A particular closing manager would have several cash transactions voided out just before store closing. Some of the transactions were ones that had occurred earlier in the day before she even got to work.

 We watched video from the cash office during her closing shifts and discovered that she would take money out of the tills and put it in her purse.

 After gathering several weeks of evidence we sat her down for an interview. She admitted that she would search the journal tapes for cash transactions and then post void them out. She would take that dollar amount in cash for herself-, which is why there wasn’t a cash shortage. Because the customer was leaving with the merchandise the shortage came from the inventory losses.

 For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal 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.

Here’s a recent Huffington Post story of employee theft that made headlines. A 17-year-old boy was fired from his job at a chain retailer for stealing money. Not to be discouraged, the teen went to another store in a nearby town on Black Friday.

He told them he was there from a different store to help with Black Friday. They put him at a register. He worked for about six hours and took all the cash that he made. That haul totaled about $3,000.

When the manager realized (after the fact) what happened, he notified police and the company’s corporate headquarters. Local authorities launched a secondary employee theft investigation. 

While all of that was going on, managers at a third store were unaware of what was going on when the teen when he showed up there in December.

He presented himself as a general manager and said he needed to run some audits on some of the registers and on the store. He was even able to convince one of the store’s managers to take him into the cash room.

While in the cash room, the manager was called to assist another employee. It was during that time that the teen stuffed his pants with around $36,000. Adding insult to injury, the teen allegedly hugged the manager on his way out of the office.

Sometimes it isn’t easier to have the resources of a big box store.

For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal 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.

I had an internal theft situation where the employee was taking cash at the end of her shift almost every night. She would search through the journal tape to find cash transactions that had happened earlier in the day. Then she would refund a few of those transactions, and keep the cash. 

It wasn’t until we noticed an increase in our cost of goods that we started to see all of the refunds for cash. She had become so comfortable, that she would refund a few hundred dollars every shift that she worked causing thousands of dollars in losses.

When employees devise complex or elaborate schemes to cover their tracks, it makes it far more difficult to pinpoint the exact losses that are occurring. There is rarely a shortage in the cash till that shows up as a red flag. Sometimes the cash theft actually leaves an overage in the drawer.

These internal theft cases are ones that eventually get caught but only after they have become so comfortable in their theft that their methods begin to show up on our radar screens.

If you suspect that an employee is stealing cash from you, an employee theft investigation should be started as soon as possible. Cash theft can quickly escalate if it is not detected and resolved as soon as possible.

For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal 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.

Internal theft cases are much harder to prosecute and recover money from if the employee has left the company. Many judges will view this sort of employee theft investigation as a form of retaliation due to the employees notice to leave the company. The question arises as to why it took so long to resolve the employee theft investigation, and why the owners waited so long to get one started, even when they had suspicions for a length of time before the employee was to leave.

Take, for example, the small business owner that was talking to me about his concerns with one of his employees. There were major discrepancies with his store bank accounts and his accounts receivable never seemed to balance out. 

He suspected that something wasn’t right, and there was only one employee who was responsible for those accounts. Even though he didn’t outright say the words, he hinted that he was concerned about internal theft.

This employee was leaving the company and then moving across the country. They had been planning this move for about six or seven months at this point, and had just a few short weeks left.

Even though this owner had suspected for a while that internal theft was going on, he just now wanted to do something about it. I let him know that whatever he decided to do, he needed to do it quickly. Not only is it harder to prosecute, but the employee (if they were stealing) had not been stopped sooner, reducing the amount of loss the company was incurring.

For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal 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.