A Memorable Memorial Day Weekend (Say that twice fast!)

Part One: Saturday.

I was sitting in my office trying to be disgruntled about not getting a raise and/or promotion I had been recommended for, but the fact that I simply had a paying job kept interrupting my efforts, when out of the corner of my eye, I notice a new employee entering the store wearing a back pack. She walks out of the camera view and I go back to wondering if I should sign on to the various job search websites on my work computer.

A few minutes later, on a different camera monitor, I see the same girl entering the Hardware Department, carrying a pair of gloves, and two pairs of shoes. She walked to the rear corner of the store, placed them down on an empty counter, then walked to each end of the aisle, obviously looking for anyone in the area. With so many red flags waving at me, I left my office and forced myself to do the fun part of this job.

I entered the department and quite stealthly walked into the aisle right next to her. I positioned myself under a ceiling mirror to observe her actions. The first thing I notice with this overhead view, was the fact that the back pack was unzipped. I was confident she was about to put the items right into the back pack...when she was interrupted by a shopper entering her aisle. She quickly gathers her items and walks out of the aisle. I follow from a distance and saw she was entering the stairwell leading to the employee locker room and bathrooms. I watched the stairs until she finally comes back down, minus the back pack, but plus a shiny silver wristwatch on her left wrist. She reports directly to a register she assigned to for the next five hours. Gave me time to sit in the office and review some video to see what she had done while I was in the office feeling shitty about my job.

It only took a few minutes for me to decide to go upstairs and check her bag. I grabbed up an assistant manager and told her I had to check an employees bag, and she willingly followed me up the stairs. We perused the locker room and found no back pack. We walked around the lounge outside the ladies room...still no back pack. As we stood bewilidered in the empty locker room, we heard footsteps coming up the stairs. We quickly stepped out of the locker room and into the lounge across the hall outside the men's room. The footsteps reached the top of the stairs and entered the ladies room. The manager and I stood wondering where she could have put the back pack when I realized I was staring at a couch that appeared to be desheveled, as much as a couch can. At one end, pushed against a wall, there was a pile of coats with pillows on top of the pile. I pulled the pile apart and found nothing underneath it. As a last ditch effort, I pulled the couch away from the wall and peeked down the side. Sure enough, something was on the floor shining up at me.

I reached down and pulled up an empty wrist watch box, which still had the tags on it. I glanced back down at the floor, and saw a strap sticking out from under the couch. Reaching down and pulling on the strap, I ended up pulling up the red and black back pack I saw the new employee wearing. With the assistant manager witnessing my actions, I opened the bag to discover two pairs of shoes, two pairs of paintball gloves, and a paintball holder. I tucked everything back into the bag, and tried to hide it again exactly like she had done. I tidied up the couch and threw the pile on top as I had found it.

I found the Store Manager and advised him he would be losing a cashier by the end of the day. Surprisingly, he was okay with that, and went back to work.

I checked to see when her break was scheduled so I could watch for any attempts to take the bag to the parking lot. My plan was to treat her like any other shoplifter if she was going out the door with it. Well her break came a few hours later. I was planted right at the front door to see which way she went. Instead of signing out and heading for the lounge, she slowly perused the store as if she was shopping. I stayed by the front of the store and kept an eye on her movement so she didnt notice me following her. I watched as she entered the soap aisle, the shampoo aisle and then
walked to the back of the store carrying her selections. A little while later, she reappears at her register empty handed, to finish her shift.

I snuck back upstairs and found that she had moved the back pack, but not very far. I found it, opened it, and noticed right away she had added items to the bag. My shoplifting dollar value just increased, and I was willing to allow her to keep this up all night if she wanted to.

I knew she wouldn't leave her post until the end of the shift, but just in case, I told her Supervisor to call me if anyone's schedule suddenly changed during the shift. I had a few hours to kill so I started the paperwork I am usually stuck with after the apprehensions. I went into the computer to get her personal info for the report and got quite the shocking surprise.

I read her name, and started writing it on the theft report. As I was writing the last name, it started sounding and looking familiar. I gave it a minute, looked at her address and I stood straight up out of my chair, opened my office door and immediately searched out the Store Manager.

"Are you kidding me? Are you ready for this? This is unbelievable."

I couldn't even get the words out fast enough before I was on to the next thought.

"Would you believe the girl stealing from you today is the sister of the guy who maced me a few months ago? How is it we can hire the sister of a convicted shoplifter, who maces me, and I am not told about it?"

Well, he was as shocked as I was...sort of. I returned to the office, shook it off, and just became more determined to make this apprehension than before. I contacted the Police Department and advised them I was going to be stopping an employee with a bag of stolen merchandise, and as a side note, she's related to the "Mad Macer of 2009". Since I wasn't sure how trained she was in macing, I asked an officer to be nearby at the end of her shift, and they agreed to have someone in the parking lot.

So, her shift finally came to an end. I stood behind the jewelry counter and waited for what seemed like an hour for her to go retrieve the bag, then come back don to leave. Just to make it more suspenseful, she had to stop and select two gallons of laundry detergent and take it to the front desk to be rung up. Finally, with her back pack over her shoulder, she made the move to the front door. I quickly hustled from the jewelry counter to the door and met her inside the vestibule.

When I asked to see what's inside the bag, she refused, saying there was personal belongings inside. I then recited what I had already seen inside the bag and she still refused. She denied stealing anything. I then asked about the watch which was still in plain sight, and she said she bought it a few days ago. I was starting to think I was giving her too much time to think about how to react, so I then gave her one more chance at giving me her bag. When she refused again, I invited her outside. Once on the sidewalk, I could see a police car to the right of me, a police car to the left of me, and another across the lot from me. I gave her one more chance to cooperate, and once she refused again, I simply raised my hand and gave a quick wave which resulted in four police officers surrounding us in an instant. They advised her that if we didn't see inside the bag as asked, she would be placed under arrest. This convinced her to drop the bag.

This episode is wrapped up with a quick inventory of her bag. Inside we found two pairs of shoes, a paintball holder, two pairs of paintball gloves, three vacuum cleaner belts, two 3-packs of Irish Spring soap, shampoo, two skin care products, and the winner of the most randomly selected item is...an iron!

Total value of the contents of the back pack, plus the watch...$140.00.

Needless to say, she was arrested anyway. Unfortunately, we were already outside so we didn't get to enjoy her walk of shame through the store, but I was just glad I escaped without that feeling of my skin burning off.

Tomorrow: Part Two: Sunday.

Don't Get Sucked In!!!

Folks!!

You fell for it! Just as she planned it!!

Let me fill in the blanks. Prior to this apprehension, this same lady was complaining about not getting enough hours. During our first interview on the phone, her early responses included the fact that she didn't need money, she wasn't having any problems financially, so why would she need to steal rings, she doesn't even wear jewelry....she told us.

When we met, she wrote a full statement, told us about selling them in the city to a guy in a long leather trench coat for $80.00. She told us she didn't know who he was or that he was even going to be there looking to buy rings from someone that day. Then, she changed it up a little and added that she knew of the guy because her son, a previously fired employee at my store, had already sold him a Wii game system...

(Any guesses where he might have acquired a Wii game system to sell???)

So, after getting all of the paperwork done, and finalizing her sudden early retirement, we move on to the little issue of restitution. Please remember, even though she got $80.00 for the rings, we are out almost $2,000.00. She now owes us...$2,000.00. As is the popular opinion, we gave her some sympathy when we allowed her a year to repay us. Twelve months that is. She didn't have to worry about scrounging up the 2K for an entire year. Her response?

"Oh no, I am paying this back tomorrow. I have a million dollar trust fund, all I have to do is make a phone call and I will have a check for ya tomorrow."

......I'll let that sink in.

I Know How to End a Month!

Finally, I have something worth writing about. Although I could have updated you on the Diamond Ring thief earlier, the amount of paperwork that generated didn't really give me incentive to come home and write even more about it...no offense. But now I have a few things to bring you all up to speed on...

First, the suspect in the diamond ring caper was off for a week. During this time, it was disccovered we were missing two rings instead of one. Her taking an entire week off, however, gave me time to investigate a little further. To make a long story short, myself and the district manager reviewed the video, then went out and examined the "crime scene," the jewelry counter. Unfortunately, I had assumed the staff had thoroughly searched the area for any evidence fo the ring. Silly jme, it took us just a few minutes to locate the price tags under a counter that belonged to both rings. Obviously they had been ripped off and tossed aside. This convinced us of what we suspected and we decided not to wait for her to come backto work. The DM and I called her at home, and on speakerphone interviewed her about the missing rings. She agreed to meet us, and during that meeting, she admitted to stealing both rings, and then selling them for 80.00 to help pay medical bills. They were worth $2,000.00, but she got $80.00 for them. As a result, she was fired and prosecuted. Case closed.

I now jump ahead to Memorial Day weekend. I am sentenced to working the entire weekend since it is a busy retail time....two grabs so far.

Stay tuned.

Quite the Sunday of Work.

Finally. No, you haven't missed anything. It really has been this long since I caught a shoplifter. However, the rest of the time was filled with counting merchandise for three different store inventories, preparing for a compliance inspection, and of course following people around the store until each and everyone of them ended up in a line to pay for the stuff I saw them pick up. Damned honesty is killing this career!

So, today, a nice quiet Sunday right? Yeah well. It starts with an investigation into a missing diamond ring from the jewelry department. It was last seen five days ago, so atleast I do have a starting point. Initially, I look at video. That is alot of video to watch. I then go to a database that shows all transactions done on a specific register. I see no transactions, or purchases made, that fit the description of the missing jewelry. Just before I gave up on the transactions, I noticed one strange event. Someoen did a price check for something that was the same price as the missing ring. I looked further and sure enough, it was the missing ring. And it was done just the night before we discovered it missing. Suddenly, we have narrowed it down. I then go back to the video of the date and time of the price check, and there it is. A fairly new employee holding the missing ring in her hand and scanning it to see how much it cost. She then carries it off camera and returns 10 seconds later empty handed. Hmmmm....

I check the next time she works and it so happens, she was on the schedule for tonight. I settled in for a long night. As I relocated a camera to take in a full view of the jewelry department, the employee calls off sick. Not just for tonight, but for the week. I guess if I knew I was about to be caught stealing a diamond ring, it would make me sick too.

Next we found two empty packages from $70.00 camcorders left in the trash can outside the fitting rooms. I viewed video and watched a girl cut the packages from the hook, carry them in her cart to the fitting rooms, and come out of the fitting rooms with a handbag just a little more filled than when she went in. Ten minutes later, we find the packages... close!

The rest of the day was busy with a crowded store most of the day, several people acting suspicious needed to be watched and followed. Of course a busy day wouldn't be complete if one of my two DVR's didn't crash. This suddenly left me with only half the cameras I started with. I spent several hours moving the lost cameras to a good dvr and eventually finished the shift with no apprehensions, or so I thought.

I left my office with car keys in hand, looking forward to a cold beer. I didn't even say goodbye to anyone, just walked out, got in the car, and began to drive away. For some reason, before I left the property, I thought I would take one lap around the building. As I drove around the last corner before leaving, I noticed two side doors to the garden center wide open. I thought to myself, I need to call the front desk and tell them to close them and set the alarms. I made my last turn, and glanced back toward the open doors. Suddenly, two boys came running out the doors, turned toward the back of the store and ran toward a neighboring rear parking lot. I nanchalantly pulled my Mustang up next to their little running feet.

"Hi there."

Their eyes were popping out of their heads when they realized I saw them.

"Why would you be coming out the back door and not the front doors?"

They both fumbled over their own version of their story. I quickly turned toward the bag they were carrying, and the receipt that was no doubt included. As I suspected, they only paid for two items, yet, they each held bags of candy in their hands, and the bag was still half full. I called the front desk and had the assistant manager meet us outside. We escorted the boys to my office where the parents were called. Soon, I had two embarassed kids, and two pissed off fathers in my office. Information was exchanged, the kids took the walk of shame through the store with dad within arms reach, and again, I walked out the door with my car keys in hand.

Pardon me while I get that beer now.