Employee Theft is a Crime in Atlanta Georgia

May 17, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Employee theft is a crime and against the law just like any other crime, but don’t expect the police to react to it in the same way that they react like other crimes like purse snatching, robbery, or burglary.  In fact, just call the police and ask them to investigate a theft that you suspect one of your employees may have committed, and unless it involves a whole lot of merchandise or money, don’t expect a robust employee theft investigation to be conducted.  This is no indictment against law enforcement or individual law enforcement departments or officers, but they have better things to do.  And off the record, I’ve had a police investigator tell me, “Don’t expect me to get excited about something that the employer should have prevented in the first place.”

So what can a business owner do if he suspects an employee has or is continuing to steal from him?  Ask him?  Confront him?  Set him up?

The best bet is to find someone who knows in detail how businesses operate and also has the investigative skill set to analyze a problem and offer not only an immediate solution, but also ways to avoid internal theft in the future.

A corporate fraud investigator is trained and experienced in dealing with incidents of internal theft – money, merchandise, other property and supplies, time, identity, or even intellectual property.  It’s an unfortunate fact that your own employees can hurt your business in ways that even your competition can’t.  A corporate fraud investigator has the resources to deal with employee theft on every level, from white collar crime like embezzlement to minor pilfering like candy bars and snacks.  Why would an employer worry about minor pilfering?  Multiply 15 employees times a $1.00 candy bar times 5 days a week for 50 weeks.  $3750.00 per year in employee theft through pilferage.  And that’s just at a dollar each.

While conducting an employee theft investigation, a corporate fraud investigator will develop information through observation and interviews with the employees just how widespread the employee theft actually is. Business owners and managers are frequently shocked when they discover the scope of internal theft cause by employees at their business.  Employee theft has a tendency to spread among employees until it almost commonplace if not stopped in its early stages.

To speak with a corporate fraud investigator about and employee theft investigation or internal theft in Atlanta Georgia or elsewhere, call 770-426-0547 or click here for more information.

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Employee Theft – Good Employee Goes Bad?

May 17, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Considering employee theft, no company willingly hires a thief.  Most companies actually run some sort of criminal history or background check before they hire someone, just to be sure that they aren’t hiring a thief.  So why does an allegedly honest employee suddenly turn to a life of crime and take money from his employer’s pocket.

May people may think that calling employee theft a “life of crime” is an overreach, but not the thousands of employers whose businesses are harmed by these thieves.

How do employers allow internal theft to happen?  Is there any way to stop it?

Several of elements have to exist for theft by employees to continue:

The employee has some perceived need for the cash or merchandise; the employee either can’t or doesn’t want to pay for the merchandise; the thief has the opportunity to convert the property to his own use; the thief has little fear of being caught, or of the consequences if he is caught.

After conducting hundreds of employee theft investigations, the common denominator for individuals who continue stealing from their employers has been a lack of oversight by supervision, or the lack of internal controls within the company.

Generally, a trusted employee is allowed to go about his business without being audited or routinely checked up on by supervision.  Employee thieves almost always start by stealing small amounts and grow bolder as time goes on and they remain undetected.  Frequency of thefts and amounts taken increase until the habit is out of hand even in the mind of the employee.

The solution to internal theft lies in the culture of the company itself.  Policies and procedures are designed and implemented which require certain job functions to be directly supervised or periodically audited to preclude continued employee theft.  The fact that this happens should be communicated to all employees as they are hired and reinforced regularly.  This should include every job function fro trash disposal (what else go out with the trash?) to the accounting department (does the same person do receipts, deposits, and disbursements?)

Maybe it’s time to take an objective look at your company’s policies and procedures and whether or not they’re being enforced consistently.

Loss prevention consultants have experience in analyzing and correcting any deficiency that allows employee theft to exist and thrive.  An expert in loss prevention investigation can quickly and economically focus on those areas of the business that actually encourage internal theft through lack of attention.

To speak with a loss prevention investigator about employee theft, internal theft, or an employee theft investigation, call 1-770-426-0547 or click here for more information.

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Liquor Bottle Security Defeats the Criminal Intent

May 16, 2011 by

Most liquor retailers understand the need for liquor bottle security. However, many utilize bottle locks to provide the necessary level of liquor bottle security to keep their business profitable. That’s right; liquor bottle security keeps your business profitable.

Criminals looking for a quick merchandise acquisition and sell off always go for liquor. The street value is high and the merchandise is easy to sell. Thieves will often target the retailer without liquor bottle security or EASy Bottle bottle locks by Alpha Security and will ravage the business until stopped. How do you stop these types of criminals? Well you could call the police department, however, that will only work so often. Police departments are often overwhelmed with more serious crimes and those of theft fall lower on the response list. The reality is, you as the business owner or manager need to provide the best liquor bottle security available.

Alpha Security has been around for many years and has been offering retailers, new and old, affordable, high quality bottle security. Their new EASy Bottle bottle locks is an excellent deterrent for theft. The bottle locks are nearly impossible to remove without a key at the register. If a thief can’t open the liquor or get it out of the store without an alarm going off they won’t steal it. Bottle security is something you can’t afford to take for granted.

A grocery retailer I once worked took bottle security for granted. They knew of Alpha Security and the EASy bottle system, but chose to keep the bottle security internal. Their idea of internal bottle security included two employees trying to maintain a high sales liquor department. Of course, unless the business is willing to commit an employee to the liquor aisle the entire sales day, they don’t stand a chance of preventing theft without Alpha Security products. This point was proven one Friday evening a few summers ago. The liquor clerk had stocked some high dollar scotch on the top shelf and went away on his lunch break. About 1 hour later he returned to find an empty shelf and 12 bottles of Scotch missing. Alpha Security could have provided the appropriate security device to keep this from happening.

Visit the Retail Loss Prevention Store

For more information contact us at Bottle Locks or call 1.770.426.0547

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Prevent Shoplifting – A Controllable Expense

May 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Retailers look for ways to prevent shoplifting when shoplifting causes problems with the P&L.  The business owner has to buy replacement merchandise to replace merchandise that is gone but hasn’t been sold.  Shoplifting can cause inventory shortages up to 3% or higher of total sales for a given period, higher that the net margin percentage for many businesses.

There are a lot of ways to begin the battle to prevent shoplifting, so the merchant is faced with choices.  More staff?  CCTV? Lockable displays? Merchandising plans?  Staff awareness training?  Retail anti theft devices?

All these things contribute to reduce shoplifting, but the retail business owner has to weigh expense against savings; merchandise security against customer access; and customer inconvenience against an invitation to touch, feel, and try on or try out merchandise that is openly displayed.

In other words, what action is going to have the biggest ROI, and keep the merchandise on the racks and on the shelves until a legitimate customer purchases it?

Checkpoint Systems Electronic Article Surveillance is one of the best and most efficient ways to prevent shoplifting while still leaving merchandise accessible to interested customers.  Checkpoint tags and Checkpoint labels attached to high dollar/high theft articles mean that if merchandise that hasn’t had the tags or labels removed at the point of sale exits the store by the Checkpoint Systems antennas, an alarm will sound.  The presence of the antennas at the entrance/exit to the store is enough to deter all but the most determined shoplifters.  Genuine Checkpoint labels and Checkpoint tags must be deactivated at the register or removed by a special tool in order not to set off the alarm.  It is simply to much work for a shoplifter to attempt to do this himself, and a shoplifter would surely attract attention if trying to remove it.  Shoplifters fine it much easier to find another store with similar merchandise but no Checkpoint Systems protection.

For a look at what’s available from Checkpoint Systems, Checkpoint tags, Checkpoint labels and much more, visit our Online Retail Loss Prevention Store.

To speak with someone on even more ways to prevent shoplifting, call 770-426-0547 or click here for more information on Checkpoint Systems, Checkpoint tags, and Checkpoint labels.

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Employee Theft in the News

May 15, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Most employee theft cases never make the news, but the highly unusual ones or those that involve tens of thousands of dollars sometimes make it to the six o’clock broadcast or the local morning paper.

One such incident occurred recently near Albany, NY, when an employee of a major retailer was arrested and charged with the theft of over $42,000 in jewelry since 2009.  That’s a lot of jewelry, even for a department store.

Read the entire story here.

The theft was discovered by Loss Prevention and store management when a merchandise audit showed an excess of items unaccounted for.  When the loss prevention investigator confronted the employee, she was wearing some of the stolen jewelry.

The takeaway from this story was in a quote by the police lieutenant assigned to the case: “When we get these internal theft cases, it’s someone they trust.  It ends up being a significant amount of money before it’s found out.”  He added the internal theft of this magnitude happen about six times a year at his department.

According to the police, the ex-employee sold some of the jewelry to pay bills, kept some for personal use, and gave some away as gifts.

No matter the reason, employee theft hurts businesses both large and small.  As a matter of fact, it probably harms small businesses even more, since they operate on smaller revenues, and don’t have an employee specifically tasked as a loss prevention investigator.  Small business’ ownership and employees are generally more close-knit and more like family than those of a large employer.  Because of familiarity, there is a tendency to trust employees of a small business more and give them more responsibilities with less supervision.

When a small business owner suspects internal theft, it is difficult for him to view the situation from an objective standpoint.  Frequently by the time there is an indication of employee theft, the problem has reached a point where it goes deeper than one employee and involves large amounts of merchandise, money, or other assets.

Loss prevention consultants can develop and conduct loss prevention audits that will expose vulnerabilities in supervision, policies, and procedures.  If a problem is suspected, loss prevention consultants can isolate the cause and determine the solution.  If there are dishonest employees involved, the loss prevention investigator has the ability to gain knowledge through interviews with key personnel and make appropriate recommendations.

Don’t wait until employee theft puts you and your company in the headlines.  Take action to prevent it from happening in the first place with an unbiased and objective analysis from experienced loss prevention consultants.

Call 770-426-0547 to discuss your employee theft suspicions with an experienced loss prevention investigator, or click here for more information.

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Deter Theft With the Technology of Bottle Security

May 14, 2011 by

While shoplifting has been around forever, the technology that can help prevent the theft of your merchandise has not.  Businesses in this current day and age of technology can benefit from the many advancements that have been made in the field of loss prevention.

Stores that sell wine and liquor now also have options to help keep their merchandise secure.  Advanced Liquor bottle security, like the EASy bottle system by Alpha Security, can be added to your high theft and expensive wines and liquors.  This new bottle lock easliy fits over the top of the bottle and prevents the bottle being opened prior to being purchased.  Store employees remove these bottle locks when the item is purchased.

The bottle lock on your high end bottle of wine or liquor does not deter from the presentation of the merchandise, but it does deter theft.  A would-be shoplifter sees this liquor bottle security on the bottle and will more than likely decide to take his shoplifting elsewhere.  Shoplifters do not want to get caught and therefore do not want to spend time trying to figure out how to open one of these new bottle locks.

Shoplifters, especially those stealing wine and liquor, want immediate gratification for their efforts.  New Bottle security such as the Alpha Security EASy bottle system can make that goal unrealistic for the potential shoplifter, often forcing them to move on to the next business where bottle locks are not thwarting their efforts.

This technology also allows the business owner to display his high end products openly so that customers can shop them, read labels, etc.  This is preferable to having these items behind a counter or in a locked case, and an increase in sales will result.  This, coupled with decreased loss due to theft, makes the technology of bottle security well worth the investment.

Buy EASy Bottle and other Bottle Security at our website.

For more information about Alpha security , bottle security , bottle locks , EASy bottle , bottle lock or contact us at liquor bottle security or call 1.770.426.0547

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Clothing Security Solutions Provide Solid Sales

May 14, 2011 by

Sales, Sales, Sales … and Clothing security. That’s the traditional thought of many retailers. Although for some reason, some managers still do not see the true value of Clothing security.

Convincing business owners and managers of the advantages of clothing security tags and a clothing alarm can be a challenge. Many, as is appropriate, get stuck in the sales, sales, sales mode yet forget that as equally important is clothing security. Having no merchandise in their stores to sell is the biggest negative impact retailers can face. Security tags on clothes can be the solution, but the mindset of the retailers has to be one outside of the box.

Clothing security tags , when used with a clothing alarm , offer a wide range of protection for the merchant. From a shoplifter’s standpoint, they want ease and convenience. They want to be able to get in and out of a store with little friction. Simply observing security tags on clothes will immediately deter many potential thieves. Security tags on clothes are solid little devices position on clothing for the convenience of the customer, the convenience of the sales associate and the inconvenience of the dirt bag looking to clear your racks. As a loss prevention professional, I can tell you many stories of retailers wanting to sell merchandise without clothing security tags. Many times, I have seen these businesses continue to sell merchandise having no security tags on clothes and actually believing they are staying profitable. Yet when the inventory results are returned, they get a rude awakening.

Protecting your sales falls in line with protecting your profits, clothing security tags are a must in any retailer selling clothing. It’s almost reckless for a business to display merchandise without clothing security tags… it’s an invitation to thieves. Think of it this way, if you are one of those stubborn retailers wanting hold out. When a thief walks into a business with clothing security tags, 9 times out of 10, they will walk out and look for the easy mark, or the store without clothing security tags.

Visit the Retail Loss Prevention Store to purchase a clothing alarm or security tags.

For more information contact us at clothing security or call 1.770.426.0547

 

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Prevent Shoplifting by Teenagers

May 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Is it more difficult to prevent shoplifting by teenagers than it is adults?  Maybe so.

Teenagers and younger do know right from wrong, so there’s no difference there.  There is apparently more susceptibility to peer pressure, not just regarding shoplifting, but in just about everything they do.  It seems as though they listen to the same music, watch the same TV shows, and dress alike most of the time.

To the retailer, the reasons don’t really matter much.  It’s the result of teenage shoplifters that really hurt the bottom line.

I’ve seen signs at the entrances of convenience stores that limit the number of teenagers allowed on the premises at any one time.  I remember as a young person being watched whenever I went into a store with one or more friends, when no adults were present.  Clearly, shoplifting by teenagers is a problem for many retailers who are always looking for better ways to prevent shoplifting.

Teenagers are going to shoplift.  There is no doubt about that.  Not every teenager, of course, but according to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, around 24% of apprehended shoplifters are teenagers.

One reason teenagers are bold shoplifters seems to be that they are unafraid of punishment.  They realize that if caught as a first timer, they are apt to be dealt with lightly by the justice system, if not their parents.  As a facilitator for a county program aimed to prevent shoplifting among teenagers, I found very few apprehended teenagers had been told specifically not to shoplift by their parents.  Now I’m sure they were never specifically told not to steal a car either, but like shoplifting, because the parents never thought their kids would shoplift.

But the fact is that they do. 

One way to ease the retailer’s mind about shoplifting and the problems it brings is the installation of Checkpoint Security Systems EAS.  Teens and other shoplifters recognize Checkpoint Systems as they enter the store and realize that their plans to shoplift just ran into a snag.  Application of Checkpoint tags and Checkpoint labels to high theft merchandise makes shoplifting too much like work for the thief as they are unable to remove or deactivate the tags and labels (it can only be done by the cashier with the proper equipment) and they then decide to go to another store where there is no EAS equipment installed.

Short of barring teens from the store, Checkpoint Security Systems is the most efficient and economical way to prevent shoplifting from any retail environment.

Call 770-426-0547 or click here to learn more ways to prevent shoplifting, and information about Checkpoint tags, Checkpoint labels, and Checkpoint Security Systems.

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Checkpoint Systems “For Dummies” (part III)

May 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Knowing where to place these Checkpoint labels is key. If the label does not pass through the deactivation field they will not be deactivated. The general rule of thumb is to place any Checkpoint labels near or under the barcode. This is why Checkpoint systems offers such a wide variety of thermal transfer labels that allow the end user to print their barcodes directly on the tag itself. It is vital that cashiers and anyone else who will be responsible for this task be properly trained on how to scan an item to ensure the tag has been deactivated. When the system is installed the technician should discuss the size and location of the deactivation field because it is invisible. Also, there is a device that can be purchased that can be used to identify the parameters of the field.

Because Checkpoint labels are made from a coil of metal on a sticker, they should not be placed on metal surfaces. This will make the tag go unnoticed by Checkpoint security systems. Also, you will want to keep the label on a flat surface. When a label is bent it will cause the label to change its “queue” or frequency and decrease the chance that it will alarm the Checkpoint security systems.

Understanding how a Checkpoint security system functions and how it should be properly used will tremendously help your effort to stop shoplifting and might save you a few headaches along the way. Remember, a Checkpoint security system can do an excellent job preventing shoplifters from hurting your bottom line but it is only one weapon in an arsenal of loss prevention devices and techniques.

Visit the Retail Loss Prevention Store for your checkpoint systems needs anywhere in the United States.

For more information on Checkpoint security systems, Checkpoint labels or Checkpoint systems contact us at Checkpoint security system or call 1-770-426-0547

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Employee Theft – It Could be Worse

May 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

That’s right, your problems with employee theft could be worse if you had hired a person like the one who worked at the U.S. Marshal’s Service in Washington, D.C.

According to an article at the Examiner online a ten-year employee was sentenced in Federal Court to 21 months in prison plus 3 years probation and restitution of $104,000.

What made this case seem unusual to me were the different ways the former employee who worked as an administrative officer at the Superior Court found to defraud her employer.  None of these ways by themselves are all that unusual, but for one person to come up with these schemes shows that she really put forth some effort to get over on her employer.  Just one avenue of employee theft was not enough.

The ex-employee admitted to:

· Used an agency credit card to pay personal expenses
· Created a fictitious employee and submitted false time and attendance records for that employee for a year, converting the payroll dollars to her use
· Had U.S. Treasury checks issued to pay down the balances on her personal credit cards by referencing false invoices

The grand total of admission was $104,000 – your and my tax money, by the way.  Aand this is probably al she could remember.  Surely there’s more.

Of course the really ironic thing about this article is that the victim was the U. S. Marshal’s Service.

If a federal law enforcement agency can become a victim of employee theft, what chance do the rest of us have?

Lesson learned: Never let one employee, no matter how trusted, take so much responsibility that no supervisor or auditor ever checks up on all their work functions; Require at least two sets of eyes on every disbursement before the money is paid; Audit payroll occasionally; Review company credit card activity often; Trust but verify!

White collar crime has a huge impact on private businesses in every category.  Each business has to take the initiative to protect itself from internal theft.  Loss prevention consultants are business-oriented professionals who act to prevent employee theft through an objective look at the business’ policies and initiate and conduct an employee theft investigation if called for, and bring an unpleasant situation to a satisfactory conclusion.

Call 770-426-0547 to speak with one of our loss prevention consultants about potential employee theft situations or an employee theft investigation at your business, or click here for more information.

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