The time I caught a thief...

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

When I worked at Digital Equipment Corporation, I worked very early hours, at my own choice. I could get a lot done without any interruptions.  The plant was for software engineers, three buildings, a total of eleven floors.  The company set the floors up with 2, 4 or 6 little kitchens for coffee machines with small fridges and Bunn coffee makers but they left it tO the employees to figure out how to buy/sell coffee and milk and whatever.

 

one morning near 4am, I came to work, walked to my office on a carpeted path as was my custom. Whoa!  Our coffee station had a nice wooden box for collecting money, there was a security guard bending over the box with a knife. Many stations used only a styrofoam cup to collect money. I said to the guard “What’s up” though I knew.  He said he was trying to get change and showed me a large wad of bills.

 

now consider this, if you are trying to get coins out of a cash box, you will turn it upside down. From the top you are fishing for bills.

 

so... I sent an email to “security @ .....” remember it was 4am. He saw the email had time to make up a story. About 8 am I get an email requesting me to talk with the security supervisor. I told her the story and she said she would tell me of the fault within a few days which never happens because it is a hr issue.

 

it still amazes me how something like that can be remembered like it was yesterday but I can’t find where I left my keys

He was gone the next day.

 

 

 

[St. Louis Suomi SASS #31905]

I had one who stole the little packets of coffee.  The rate of coffee usage went thru the ceiling right after she was employed.  We announced that if the usage did not drop back to normal, we would terminate the service.  I noticed her stuffing the packets in her purse and confronted her. She removed them,  coffee dropped back to normal.  Because of my company's HR policies, nothing was done for a year (race and gender made termination VERY difficult despite the  lack of productivity and competence).  A reduction in staff gave us the opportunity and she was given the opportunity to find a position elsewhere in the company in 60 days.  She couldn't and all ended well..except for her.

 

STL Suomi

 

[Sedalia Dave]

They have fired at least three in the last few years where I work for petty theft.  The first one I heard about was an employee that was eating on the company cafeteria. He would take two dinner rolls, leave one on his tray and put the other one in his pocket to avoid paying for the second roll.

Someone noticed so security put up a camera and videotaped him in the act. He was immediately terminated.

 

Second time was an office snack fund put up by one group to raise money for the company Christmas toy drive. When the books stopped being balanced they had security put up a camera and again filmed two individuals helping themselves but not paying. Again immediate termination.

 

I cannot fathom loosing a good paying job with benefits for what amounts to the change in your pocket.

[Cyrus Cassidy #45437]

Hahaha....I'm a retired cop.  I've caught a lot of thieves!

 

One funny one was when I was in a two-officer car (a rarity in my city due to short staffing).  We rolled through a neighborhood that was, shall we say, in dire need of having cops assigned to it.  

 

Sure enough, we rolled up on two guys in the process of stealing a car.  Keep in mind we were in a fully marked patrol cruiser with a light bar on the top.  The stickers were reflective and you could see us coming from miles away.  But they were so focused on what they were doing they let us drive right up on them.  Two easy felony arrests.

 

[Allie Mo, SASS No. 25217]

I can't recall catching a thief; but, someone did. One woman took over the bottled water delivery. Someone caught her husband bringing in a full jug. They just refilled them at their tap.

 

She still took care of the Christmas party payments. 

[Sixgun Sheridan]

I worked in a computer store were inventory said we were missing several expensive Intel processors. I was the outgoing store manager (the big boss had decided to replace me with one of his close friends) so I had to let the close friend aka new manager deal with it. He couldn't figure out who it was and was ready to let people go at random. After a suspicious return of one of these processors, leaving us -1 in inventory yet again I decided to look at the security cameras, and sure enough the guy who oversaw the room where we kept the expensive items did a fake return using his GF's credit card and threw the invoice away. I showed the evidence to the big boss, and his close friend aka new manager fired the dude. In a follow-up e-mail the close friend/new manager was complimented by upper management for dealing with the problem and I resumed being transferred to a different store at a lower position (assistant manager). I wasn't sure what was worse, dealing with co-workers who were thieves or bosses who were nepotistic.

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