Employee theft is just too big of an issue to cover in one article. Last month we touched on an example of theft of time and resources. Today, we will explore some common theft methods and scams we have run across in yes, Beautiful North Idaho.

Employee theft consists of one or more of these elements, time, resources, inventory and cash. For every way man has invented to make money, it seems he has invented two ways to steal it. We have run across some very well thought out schemes. Thought out enough to the point one could almost respect the intelligence, creativity and ingenuity of the thief. Then you have to remember that it is simply not an intelligent option to carry out the behavior in the first place.

We have seen employees at a bike shop steal one or two parts a day and have a second assembly line going at their home. We have encountered friends helping friends in the retail jungle. By this I mean giving cash back to friends on credit cards, ringing up only half the goods on the counter or “skip scanning”, stealing fuel from company vehicles and pumps. Frankly, the best defense and the best favor one can do for your employees is not to even give them the opportunity at getting away with theft. Have controls in place. There are a whole host of inexpensive internal control measures as simple as a camera in a strategic location. Our feature story this month involves big item inventory theft. We refer to it as the MVE case. Mind you we took some heat on this one before it panned out.

The MVE…Most Valuable Employee

A couple years ago we were called to a small used car lot. They basically had five vehicles stolen from the lot in the last six months. These vehicles just seemed to vanish from plain sight. Each one was valued at over ten thousand dollars. The owners of the lot were getting ready to basically lock down their car lot with an ugly eight foot high chain link fence topped with barbed wire. The cost of this fence was in the tens of thousands and its ungainly appearance did not match the suburban setting around it. Customers would think they were shopping next to a polling station in Baghdad. Not the image the car dealership wanted to project but the owners felt they had no other choice.

We basically interviewed all of the employees. By asking a few questions, mind you the right questions, our lead investigator basically came to the conclusion the thefts were an inside job. There was one person in particular who well just wasn’t quite right in responding to the questions. Our ideas were relayed to management, who basically looked at us in amazement and then in disgust. Basically, they were paying us top dollar help solve their problem and we had the nerve to finger their top salesman. The particular salesman was the first one to arrive and the last one to lock up at night. A real go getter, the top sales person of the lot for 16 of the 18 months he was there. He was one of their diamonds in the rough, a natural.

We had some explaining to do before we were run out of town. So we convinced the owners to wait with the fence and to give us a few days to try some simple inexpensive surveillance cameras. We appeared to leave the lot with our tail behind out legs and with a ton of apologies that we couldn’t help them with their problem. In all reality, we returned later the next morning at 400am and installed and hid three small video cameras that covered the entire lot.

It only took two days for us to catch on tape what had actually been happening. It seemed that Mr. Superstar was padding his commission checks with a theft or two every other month. Employees were allowed to drive home a ride of their choice at the end of the day. Well, Mr. Superstar would go get an extra key made and simply drive a car off the lot. The car would never return. The next day a friend drops him off at work (always the first one to work in the morning). He would not have to account for his car because no one knew which one he took the night before and the keys were always accounted for. With the video in hand our salesman is now selling cigarettes and pixie sticks in Orofino. The sad part of this tail is a simple background check later revealed that our most valuable employee was a convicted felon in both Arizona and New Mexico, and guess for what crime….Grand Theft Auto of course. What headaches our client have saved if only they would have included background checks in their hiring process. Next month we will tell of the East German ladies weightlifting champion (lady??)….who was also a champion stalker.

Phillip Thompson is a Vice President and Sr. Investigator for Confidential Investigations. Mr. Thompson has a business degree from Central Washington University and has been involved in investigative work and fraud detection for 8 years. He joined Confidential Investigations in 2002. He can be contacted at 208-762-5767 or email phil@idahoprivateeye.com.