Your Day in Court

This week I have three Preliminary Hearings. For me, it will be three of about twenty appearances on the witness stand, testifying as to what I had witnessed in the store. This week, however, will be a little different.



The first hearing is for one of three coworkers I had arrested for stealing merchandise after they had helped stock the Electronics Department shelves.



On a recent Monday morning, while making my daily rounds of the shoplifter dumping areas, the Electronics Manager stopped me to advise me he thought we were missing a few PSP Game Systems from the locked display case behind the register. A few questions later and I had learned the merchandise was just delivered over the weekend. As we talked over a cup of coffee on the glass showcase next to the register, a third employee walked right up and started asking if we were talking about the PSP Game Systems. He explained that he and another part timer unloaded the warehouse truck and placed the game systems in the display case on Saturday morning.



"I went right to the manager and told him they needed to be locked up right away before these young dudes started shopping for stuff..." until this day this employee had always had a good eye for the suspicious customer, and was always quick to call for me if he thought somehing was going to happen.



If you're keeping track, that was two red flags. This guy had come from nowhere and guessed immediately what we were talking about, missing merchandise. Secondly, he tried to sway the attention to the newer, younger employees and actually claim responsibility for securing the merchandise. Well, for me it sounded too good to be true, so I retired to my study. And by "study" I mean the small closet-sized office with the antiquated camera system inside.



After a short time of figuring out when and where to look, the video was rewound to Saturday at approximately 9:00am. According to the schedule, this is when the employee was due to arrive at work. Sure enough, there he was...



The video was pretty clear. The two employees showed up on time with a flatbed of merchandise right from the loading dock. Some items were placed on the shelves, and sure enough, others were placed behind lock and key in the display cases. As it would happen, an hour after the warehouse delivery was nestled into its proper display cases and shelves, the stock boy would reappear on my video, removing keys from the register. Funny thing I noticed that morning was the lack of any customer within fifty feet of this employee.



I watched curiously as he opened the register, removed keys, checked once up and down the main aisle, then turned to the Video Game System display cases. Minutes later he was returning the keys, and walking away with a brand new PSP Game System, and disappearing into the back room, off camera.



Later, just after the dinner rush the same day, I noticed two more employees hanging around the Electronics Department register. Neither of these employees work in that department, and I was wondering what they were doing. just so happens, they too were admiring the new PSP game Systems. (Not a big video game guy, but apparently these were the new big thing in video games. However, I think stocking the shelves then returning to the shelf before any customers have a chance to shop for them, is cheating, gamers.)



I watched the video and was amazed to see these two employees plotting, then carrying out quite the caper...or attempted caper. The female employee left the department and returned with a roll of Mentos and placed it on the counter. The male employee opened the register, unlocked the display case and placed a game system on the counter and began ringing up the sale. He scanned both the PSP and the Mentos, took her money, bagged the items and replaced the keys in the register. On video, looked good. However, when I checked the Register Journal, a a database which records every keystroke and motion the cashier makes, it seems he forgot something during the transaction. The only item scanned and rung up, were the Mentos, for less than a dollar. As a result, the female employee/customer walked out with a new PSP game System, for the price of Mentos.



The next day the male employee arrived for work, we brought him in for an interview. At the end of the meeting, he was in tears, had written a statement admitting to the "freebagging" and using a "friend" to take it out of the store for him. In addition to upset, he was also unemployed, and arrested for Retail Theft. This week will be the first time we se each other since.



I can't wait to hear what they have to say in front of the judge. Hard to argue with video.



Other than the employee's hearings, I also have the hearing for the bald guy who was just apprehended for taking the DVD Player in his back pack. Unlike the employees involved in thefts, this will not be the first time he is in front of a judge. According to his criminal history, or rap sheet, this will be his tenth arrest for Retail Theft since 2005.



You'd think he would be better at it by now...