Little sister stealing from work

[mrsdgrohl]

My little sister (18) works in a franchised corner shop, it's a very quiet rural one and she works alone for 6 hours three days a week. She confessed to me last night that she's been struggling for money lately as she's spending all of hers on driving lessons and has been eating/drinking things from the shop with the intention to pay for it all when she had enough. She said it wasn't a massive haul, but the odd chocolate bar here, bottle of coke there, pack of crisps here..

She said she 'realised' yesterday it had been over 4 months and she hadn't paid any of it back. I asked her to estimate and she said probably around £50 worth of stuff at this point, but although she's always planned on paying it back, she hasn't even kept track of everything she's taken she's now crying that she's going to get caught. I went in to see her today and told her to pick up everything she can remember eating or drinking and scan it, she did and I made her pay the £35 for it all and then she put it all back on the shelves.

I don't buy for a second that this is all of it. I think she realised it was getting expensive and said that was all. I've never worked in retail so I have no idea how it works in regards to stock takes etc, is she likely to get pulled up if she hasn't been honest and there is more she's taken and not paid for? I'm furious at her and I've told our mum today who will be punishing her but I don't want her to get caught, she lives in a very small rural village and doesn't want to get marked as a thief. I'm happy to pay for anything else she's taken (she will be paying every penny back) but she's adamant she 'can't remember what else'

Is she likely to get caught for this? Or because it's (apparently) only around £50 or so and she's paid off £35 that anything that is noticed missing at stock take will be written off? I've left her there and told her to walk around shop and look at products try remember if she's had any of them and to write a list and I'll go back in and pay for all that but can guarantee she won't remember it all..

I'd say she will be fine! How come she's only getting worried now though? Wonder does she think they suspect something?

@GiveMeAllTheGin8 Her reaction and coming to me for help is making me more suspicious to be honest, I'm convinced it's a lot more than she's admitting and she's realised she's in over her head and is panicking. Hoping I'm wrong.

Hope it all works out okay, op.

Shops and restaurants plan for a certain amount of wastage and theft. Bottles get dropped and smashed, a packet of crisps might be burst, etc. If anything it’s more likely to look odd that £35 has suddenly appeared in the till but the stock doesn’t match.

I'm convinced it's a lot more than she's admitting and she's realised she's in over her head and is panicking.

I'd suspect that too. Maybe her boss has mentioned there seems to be a discrepancy and they need to investigate?

@SpikyCactus We rang £35 worth of items through the till which I paid for, and then put the items back on the shelf as they were items she'd taken and not paid for previously. Would that still stand out as a random £35 appearing in the till?

As long as she’s not nicked any money I’m almost certain she’ll be fine. She’s not not noticed any stock checks in 4 months - there are bound to be other shoplifters and mistakes going on which wouldn’t make it so suspicious

The amounts she admits to taking are in the scheme of things, tiny.

I work in wholesale and an honest person like yourself would be amazed at the stock losses from 'grazing' (crisps, chocolate, cans and even bloody medicines) that small business owners do in our stores, it clearly happens in their own shops a lot to make them so blasé.

Good for you taking it seriously, because it IS serious. But in the wider scheme I can't see it causing long term harm. I hope she learns her lesson.

I don't know how someone can steal and people are saying oh, that is fine as long...as so and so ..only things, not money. In a shop stock is money. Your sister is a thief.

She did wrong.
She knows she did wrong.
She's tried to correct it.

Hopefully if her boss notices anything he'll accept she's tired when making the decision about next steps.

If he doesn't notice she's very lucky and hopefully won't do it again.

If she works in a small rural shop, alone, for 6 hours at a time, I’d like to think there are some security cameras /cctv - not to catch her, but for her safety- so there’s every chance her boss has seen her on the cameras taking things at each shift?

I was going to say the same...is there CCTV?

Better to get a lid on it now, one of my pals was fired for borrowing out of the till...not quite the same but slippery slope.

Your sister is a thief.

Are you sure she's not been skimming the till?

Honestly?

If what you've done will be noticed depends on the last stock take and how regular they are. If they appear to have sold more (ex) Twixes than they have, then something will ring alarm bells.

Your sister did steal - yes. But you have just made it really obvious and possibly caused a problem that wasn’t there. Yes, ringing through £35 of stuff then putting it back will show up as a random £35 up in the till.How could you think it wouldn’t? I appreciate you were trying to do the right thing but that probably wasn’t the way about it tbh. Especially if there is CCTV of you both doing that. She may have to explain it now. But that might have been the better option to start with.

You’ve made things worse

Findingdotty the stuff is gone. The sister has eaten and drunk it. The OP has explained that twice. —Yes I have worked in retail—

No cctv at all, it's a tiny shop. It's on a averagely busy street just in a very rural town.

Sorry if I'm being thick but how was ringing everything she could remember taking through the till and paying making the till out?

The £35 was accounted for on the till, several separate transactions. As if someone had come in and bought those things. Seeing as she had taken those items, just on different days the stock and the amount being rung through the till should marry up? She said weekly stock takes are taken of cigarettes and alcohol but that groceries aren't counted, just taken off shelves and written off when out of date or sold. So it wasn't a random £35, it was £35 of items she had already removed from the store. The only reason I got things off shelf then put them back on was to scan them as the ones she'd eaten were already gone but unaccounted for on til? Have I got this confused?

@mrsdgrohl because she didnt eat £35 worth of stuff altogether.She did it bit by bit.

But now suddenly her till will have more money in that it should have.

I’d bet she’s taken money and that’s why she is scared

No the till won't have too much money in it as they rang it through.

No the till won't have too much money in it as they rang it through.But the stuff is still in the shop.

It would only make the till out if the shop had a linked inventory system, and even that isn't foolproof with a small corner shop.

If she's found out, she can honestly say yes she's taken things with the intention of paying later and that's what she's done.

If you don't think it's the full amount can you guesstimate? For example two bars of normal chocolate, one bag of crisps, and a fizzy drink per working day.