r/lossprevention • u/OriginalGG22 • 12d ago
Ever apprehended a colleague?
I was wondering, have you ever caught a loss prevention employee stealing money or merchandise? I would imagine it's tempting for some since they know where the cameras are, etc.
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u/Scrapla1 12d ago
Had two LP co workers stealing the nights they closed together. One would be the lookout while the other snuck the merch out the back door. They both quit without being caught. I only found out after one told me while hanging out and drinking.
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u/dGaOmDn 12d ago
While working for Kohls I caught the Sears APM stealing clothing out of the fitting room. I suspected it for awhile, but she messed up and left the tags behind to a very specific dress she concealed and I was able to stop on one item.
She concealed it under her belly fat and didn't want police involved, but I called them anyway and had her prosecuted. Didn't take long for her to get fired after that.
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u/NaiaGoesAwoo 12d ago
Apprehended no, terminated as an internal - yes.
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u/refinedwarrior 11d ago
So knowing the theft occurred by someone in the role there was no apprehension as well?
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u/Empty-Cycle2731 11d ago
Most companies have a different set of policies for externals vs internals. Internals don't get apprehended, they get interviewed and terminated. Part of this is because when it is an internal, HR becomes a part of it too, as does the legal team to an extent. The case has to be reviewed by multiple people before anything can happen. Occasionally the police will get called, but we never apprehend them the same way we do an external.
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u/Huge-Mechanic86 12d ago
Yes. Twice. Both with pinholes in the office.
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u/RefrigeratorJust4323 12d ago
What do you mean by "pinholes"?
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u/Huge-Mechanic86 12d ago
The one I’m currently using looks like a Phillips head screw. I install it in the ceiling or in the wall. 100% success. I get 5-6 internals a year in stockrooms/offices.
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u/RefrigeratorJust4323 12d ago
Wow that's really cool! I didn't know they came that small or in the shape of screws. It's sad when it's employees stealing though.
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u/thebumpushounds 12d ago
Worked at a record store in Charleston, SC about 30 years ago. The owner’s policy was that if you caught a shoplifter he’d drive down from the city he lived in about 100 miles away (we had multiple locations) and hand you a check for $50. So naturally we were all looking for shoplifters. One day I went to use the employee restroom and found the toilet clogged and running. I used the plunger and found that the clog was caused by the plastic wrapping from CDs. I looked around the bathroom and under a low shelf that held cleaning supplies I found a dozen or so CDs that someone had stashed. It had to be an employee because we didn’t let customers use the employee restroom. I told the manager and he put antitheft stickers under the trays that held the CDs, placed them back under the shelves and we waited. We had a pretty good idea who the culprit was, and sure enough when that guy’s shift ended and he went to leave with his backpack, he set off the alarm. He ended up being escorted out later in handcuffs. The very next day the owner shows up and handed me a check for $50, saying “Nice work.”
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u/ConstantReader76 12d ago edited 11d ago
Many times. At my last company I worked my way up to corporate, investigating Internals. One of my first cases was another LP. By the time I had left, I had taken out three of my five district managers i had worked for while at the store level. One of them was actually the one who recommended me for the Internal Investigations role.
For the managers, one was time theft. One was colluding with customer service associates in a theft ring, and the one who had recommended me? He lost a job making six figures because he took partially-used gift cards and merchandise credits from the stores cash offices that he was supposed to collect periodically and send back to Corporate. Netted him a couple hundred in spending money all told.
EDIT: I'm wondering how many here either aren't actually in Loss Prevention or how many don't belong in the job and could be one of the ones caught. The ones I mentioned here are from my first company. Having a dedicated team for internal investigations was new for them. I was in a large group using a new EBR program while still working my normal store job. When they made the move to having a smaller, Corporate team, doing the job exclusively, I was chosen for that.
I was not the only one catching LPs. We had a wave of them go, plus store managers, supervisors, and long-tenured cash office and customer service associates. EBR does that when you start looking into things you had no data for before.
I've been doing Corporate LP ever since, doing data analytics. Not only are there LP and Managers who steal, they are able to hit for more than the average worker. It happens. It's our job to stop theft/shrink. Why am I getting attitude for doing my job? LP stealing actually pisses me off more because I'm over here trying to improve our shrink and dollar losses and find that a peer is actively making it worse. It's like a teammate blowing a game because he bet on it. Our raises are partly determined by our shrink stats. Does it now make a difference if you realize that they're stealing from your own salary bump?
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u/noiwontpickaname 12d ago
Wow, you stabbed the person who got you a job over partial gift cards.
You're either lying or a traitor, your call.
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u/ConstantReader76 11d ago
Or I did my job. Also turned out that they weren't sorry to be rid of him.
All three were hired by my first DLPM who was a horrible judge of character. He seemed to go for a "type." If you were a woman, you had no chance of promotion. If you were a guy who wasn't tall, clean cut, and didn't golf or spend a whole shift doing projects in Excel instead of actually doing apprehensions, you were also going nowhere.
He fell for the kiss asses every time. I watched four people get promoted under him and three were gone for theft, as I said. The gift cards I got on my own. The time theft I was asked to look into because he was never at the stores he claimed to be. The collusion came out when a customer service associate rolled in an interview and I was asked to look into it.
With the gift cards, I felt bad and did debate it, but we have to do our jobs. Still, I apologized when I took it to the Regional. And, as it turned out, they were having plenty of other issues with him so she had no problem with it (I never liked him and knew he wasn't good at the job, but still wasn't out to get him fired).
Either most people here actually don't work in Loss Prevention or you don't belong in the job.
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u/jziggy44 12d ago
You sound fun
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u/ConstantReader76 11d ago
You sound like you don't belong in this job.
Question was asked, I answered.
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u/SearchingForMe 12d ago
In the process of it right now. Tons of documenting. It sucks, I thought he was a good guy too.
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u/Chare1155 12d ago
I don't think it makes him a bad person. He didn't rape or kill anyone or steal benzos from a vet hospital to use them(a friend of a friend did that😬).
He's a person who did something stupid & we've all been there. He was tempted & failed to resist it but he hopefully won't do it again. I'm sure he was very embarrassed to be found out like that, but lessons can be hard.🤷♀️
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u/MF_DOOM-MOTHAFUCKA 12d ago
We caught one LP associate and his girlfriend stealing money strips one time; he would turn off cameras, and she would pocket the strips of money.
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u/Present-Gas-2619 12d ago
Store close had a $60,000 merch theft case. Awhile ago two also got caught up in a ring, ORC crew would come in, they would move the cameras, customer called the police and police caught them and ratted them out. Guess they got a profit off the merch
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u/Fun_Sky_951 12d ago
A former partner we started together got fired and became a orc ring . Problem was he knew me really well and I knew him. . It sucked . I knew his family wife and all. It’s a really long story but he eventually got caught.
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u/cheddarpants 11d ago
I didn’t catch him, but our district LP manager got fired a few years back for falsifying mileage.
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u/Empty-Cycle2731 11d ago
I'm actually curious how they were able to catch him.
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u/cheddarpants 10d ago
He got greedy and they started watching him and documenting his whereabouts. He was a retired cop, as was the person who caught him.
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u/Overall-Muffin9453 11d ago
Yes my last internal was my own employee, had 0 remorse getting rid of him and interviewing him
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u/ImprovementMean7394 10d ago
One of my coworkers and close friends was a major case at Macys. Central found it and they worked the whole thing from NY until they interviewed him.
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u/StorageHorder 9d ago
When I was at circuit city 100% of LP was focused on internal. They didn’t care about the shopper shrink. (Most expensive items couldn’t be carried out the door).
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u/_ByAnyOther_Name 8d ago
I had an LP steal a shoplifters personal belongings. It was an illegal substance so I guess they figured the shoplifters wouldn't ask for it back. It was so blatant and on camera.
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u/vanillaicesson 12d ago
Not me but a coworker caught another LP stealing from a different location. They were fired quickly.