Caught Stealing Incidents

Clerk Admits To Taking Stock Off Floor To Initiate Fraudulent Refunds

Management of a chain of hardware stores received an anonymous tip that an employee was making suspicious refunds. Our refund audit at that location uncovered over $20,000 in refunds that could not be verified as legitimate, and were traced to the employee, a cashier. During the interview with our investigator, the clerk admitted taking stock from the sales floor and initiating refunds, crediting them to her relative’s accounts. The cashier also implicated other employees who were involved in other illegal activities.

The clerk was taken into custody by local authorities and charged with felony theft.

Long Time Employee Caught Selling Stolen Goods On Ebay

A store owner called us because he suspected a long time employee of taking cash from the register and from back office receipts. During our investigation, it was determined that the store had also been losing merchandise at a higher that normal rate, and the cause of the shortage was unknown. After determining some of the items (some of the items were one-of-a-kind), our investigator found evidence of an Ebay store that had the items for sale.

Several controlled buys were made from the Ebay store, and from those marked items were found to have definitely come form our client. The shipping address was traced and found to be the residence of the long time employee of our client.

When interviewed, the employee stated that he would take items from the store to fill orders for his side business. He voluntarily took the investigator to his residence, where several hundred dollars worth of merchandise was recovered. He further admitted to taking merchandise valued at several thousand dollars over time.

A warrant was issued for the employee and he was arrested and charged with theft.

Shoplifting Gang Members Caught in Atlanta

Atlanta police Thursday afternoon, 10-21-10 were searching an area around two Buckhead malls for suspects in an apparent theft of clothing. The incident began just before 11:30 a.m. at the Belk store at Phipps Plaza, where as many as seven suspects fled with stolen merchandise.
Two of the suspects were caught in nearby woods, according to Atlanta police spokeswoman Kimberly Maggart.
Channel 2 Action News reported five suspects were eventually nabbed, and at least one person who may have gone across Peachtree Street to the Macy's store at Lenox Square mall. Several police vehicles could be seen outside the entrance to Macy's just before noon.

Two of our staff were atending a conferrence nearby and one caugh the photo above on his cell phone.

Medical Clinic Employee stole over $4,000, tatoo gave it away

The owner of a medical clinic called us because he would periodically lose cash from his prepared daily deposits. Several employees had access to the money, which was left in a desk drawer overnight, and all were suspect. After an initial visit, we had a covert camera and DVR, and infrared lighting installed in the darkened office where the thefts were thought to occur. Within a week, a theft occurred and the culprit was identified by a tattoo on his forearm.

The thief was a contracted cleaner who admitted during the interview with our investigator to having stolen over $4000 in all. Per the contract with the Cleaning Service, all cash and the cost of the investigation was repaid to the client.

The cleaner was prosecuted.

Office Manager Stole Over $55,000 By Issuing Checks To Phony Vendors

The Accounting Department of a Construction Services Company noticed an unusual increase in supply expenses from on of its branch locations. Upon reviewing the payables, we were contacted to investigate the cause of the sudden increase.

An investigation and audit found a total of 57 company checks made out to two fictitious vendors and deposited to a single account. The checks had been produced by a former Office Manager of the company.

The former manager was located and contacted, and agreed to an interview with our investigator. In the subsequent interview, the former manager admitted to the theft of over $55,000.00 over a period of five months.

She would make out the checks to her own bogus company, then change the payee in the accounting system to a legitimate vendor, making it appear that a true invoice had been paid.

The former employee signed a statement admitting guilt and agreeing to pay the money back.

With this information and the checks as evidence, he employer took a warrant for the arrest of the former manager, charging her with Grand Larceny.

Out Of Luck Convenience Store Manager Caught In Theft Of Over $111,000 In Lottery Tickets

The owner of a food market/convenience store contacted us with a suspicion that one or more employees were involved in manipulating lottery sales record based on major irregularities in the company’s books.

In order to further develop useful information, we installed two covert closed circuit TV cameras covering the cashiers’ area and the lottery machine. The video confirmed that the store manager, who had been employed for over two years, was regularly stealing large amounts of lottery scratch off tickets.

Another employee was observed stealing cash from sales by accepting cash from a customer, making change from the register, and pocketing the cash.

Based on the information collected, the store manager was interviewed by our investigator and admitted stealing lottery tickets totaling approximately $111,150.00 and cash in the amount of $6,500.00 from the winnings of her scratch offs. The money was taken to pay bills and for a “gambling problem” over a period of the previous 18 months.

The second employee was interviewed as well and admitted stealing approximately $3400.00 in cash over the previous year by not ringing sales and pocketing the money. She did this for “spending money”. She also admitted knowledge of the manager’s lottery activities. This person had been employed for a year and a half.

Employee Merchant Account Fraud

A member of a major Credit Card Fraud Unit contacted our Client and informed them that several suspicious credits had appeared on an individual’s credit card account that had been debited from the Client’s account. This individual turned out to be a Customer Service Representive employed by the client. Credits for $1,508.26 were made on two separate occasions and debited against the client’s account. This employee routinely handled credit card and cash transactions for the client.

Further investigation by LPSI revealed that the employee had a history of serious financial problems and had previously been involved in time fraud.

Our investigator interviewed the employee and she admitted to the theft of cash from the company fraudulently crediting her own credit card. She said that she had stolen money this way at least six times over the past seven months, stealing between $1,500 and $1,900 each time. The employee wrote and signed a statement admitting her involvement and her desire to repay the stolen money.

The investigation showed that the total loss was in excess of $10,700.00

The employee was terminated from the company for theft, and the local Police Department was contacted by LPSI and the employee was taken into custody. A copy of the investigation was sent to a civil attorney recommended by LPSI for civil recovery of the stolen money, plus damages.