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..

mrsdgrohl doesn’t every single item have a specific individual bar code? I know in stores I’ve returned stuff to with out a receipt it’s shown when I bought it so I could return it.

You’ve bought stock that’s essentially that’s still sat on the shelf that could show up already have been bought ?

@greendale17 your sister is a thief

On behalf of MN we thank you for your contribution to the thread.

would you leave a 17 year old alone for 6 hours serving alcohol

This is a good point! Surely she can’t sell booze while she’s there alone? How does she get round that?

@Single , no . Our teenage staff work 4 hour shifts , do not sell alcohol and can obviously drink tap water or make themselves tea or coffee

In normal circumstance , surely most people can manage 4 hours without a loo break , but if they need to go , then they can go to the toilet

They are not allowed to just help themselves to the stock , that is stealing from the employer

@Namechangeforthiscancershit Can't 18 year olds sell alcohol?

Actually I'm not sure the post I replied to is talking about the person in the OP so never mind!

I thought they only could with supervision? Like in Waitrose where they have to call someone over. I didn’t think they could on their own in a shop?

surely most people can manage 4 hours without a loo break I wish!

Only over 18's on the tills because we sold cigarettes, so no, a 17 year old wouldn't be able to work alone. If I recall correctly, under 18's legally have to have a break after 4 hours, over 18 is 6 hours.
They sound like a bad employer with a thief for an employee. Is this shop part of a bigger company?

Not sure why all the posts about the laws for under 18s working in shops when I did state in the OP that she is 18.

She works alone, they just lock the door and put a 'back in 5 minutes' sign up while she pops to the loo upstairs. Definitely no hidden cameras, no one has mentioned it to her, no suspicions the boss is lovely. After speaking to her again she just re iterated she started feeling guilty after realising it was starting to add up a bit, and she's looking for a new job and wanted to make amends before she left. She said she's worried as well that if they are monitoring stock they will notice it had a higher theft rate during her employment, I don't think this will be an issue as it was mainly the summer months so they probably factor in a high theft rate during this time anyway as we're near a major tourist area. She has got another list of things she remembers taking, and has worked it out to be about £40. She wants to pay £5ish of it per day by scanning and putting back on shelf but after all the people saying that'll make it worse on here I've told her not to.

So it's now nearing the £90 mark? How on earth could she have eaten that amount of money in snacks over a few months if she's only working a few hours a week?

The boss may be lovely, but she's not stupid presumably so your sister would have no idea if she has any suspicion or if there are covert cameras. You would be surprised at how small they can be and how well they can be hidden.
Contrary to popular belief, small rural shops do not have the same levels of shoplifting that larger stores have. Even an extra £50 lost in one quarter would raise suspicion and make the boss wonder if a member of staff was stealing.
My reply re under 18's was because someone asked.

I dont think you should have told her not to pay the items back at £5 a shift. I think she should, it may not be ideal but she has recognised she made a very serious error and is trying to correct it. If as you say she will scan the items pay for them and put them back the till will balance. As for cameras they may have them, but you would think the owners would have said something already if they had seen her stealing. As I already said if they are doing stocktakes the stock levels would be up, but they may put it down to human error. Have you asked her about underinging (when you don't ring the item up but take the money).

Do shop owners really begrudge an employee eating the occasional packet of crisps and a can of coke on a shift?? Fags and alcohol is a different matter but I couldn't get my knickers in a twist about this one.
(Disclaimer: I used to work in a corner shop and ate probably my own body weight in pick n mix over the months, which I felt in some small way made up for the fact that I was being paid £2.50/hr cash in hand.

Just check she’s not been giving stuff to friends (or enemies) and pretending she’s been eating it to cover for them. This happened to me when I was a teen with a Saturday job. The school bullies would come in and take stuff and threaten me. I had a sleepless night scared and then told. Had to leave the job though, I was too scared to stay.

Check just in case.

The company I worked for didn't begrudge staff eating the odd packet of crisps etc, but it had to be from written off stock which had already been recorded on the stock sheets as wastage by the manager. Not just helping themselves off the shelves. It doesn't matter if it's a packet of cigarettes or a 1p chew. Its still theft

I worked in a bakery when I was a student and at the end of the day we had to count in every loaf of bread which then all got destroyed. Nobody was allowed to take anything and nothing got given to anyone more needy for example. Such a waste.

I think your sister would be well advised to resign. What a mess.

I'm an experienced ex retail worker plus my mum worked in security area of retail.

You have made things worse because you've rung through items that haven't left the shop.

Chances are with a small shop like that it's a monthly/quarterly stock take they do, so she may not have witnessed this if it's regularly done on a day of the week she doesn't work. This is likely because as a 'Saturday girl' she probably works the busier days and stock takes of the most items will likely take place on quietest days or when the shop is closed even.

As its been 4 months that suggests to me quarterly stock take, minimal losses noticed the first stock take after she started there, but a bigger discrepancy noticed the 2nd time which is ringing alarm bells.

Even though it's a small shop there will still be checks and balances in their processes.

Your mum either with or without you needs to sit her down and tell her she needs to tell you the FULL EXTENT of the issue NOW so you're prepared. I too think there's more to this than the odd drink/bar of chocolate. You particularly need to know if her boss has said anything to her. Which I suspect they have.

If they are aware, then her best option is to fess up, resign and offer restitution. If she waits they may well get the police involved and prosecute, which would be disastrous for future employment. If she does the former they MAY act leniently and let her away with just resigning and paying up, and hope they don't mention it to anyone else!

Wtf was she thinking?! Is she still living at home? Is she genuinely hard up for food? Because honestly it doesn't sound likely. Stupid girl!

She should resign anyway as she clearly can't be trusted!

They're hardly likely to mention the hidden cameras to the person they suspect is stealing!!

I reckon it could easily be to the value of £100-150 that she's actually stolen. Minimum, if she's also been under/missed ringing, giving to friends/bullies it could well be much more.

Oh my god people are such idiots on this thread. The items have left the shop already. OP says that grocery stock isn't counted periodically. Then other posters say yes it is.

How the fuck would you know? People love to be contrary on here.

I wouldn't confess I think that is very bad advice. The extra 5pound a day is better.

Op can't possibly know how frequent stock checks are, certainly not based on the word of a thieving 18 year old who only works there 3 days a week and has only been there 4 months!

Most of us commenting on the stock take side are retail experienced. When I've worked in similar establishments stock takes have happened eg on tue afternoons if done whiles shop open (that being the quietest day) or on Sunday's outside opening hours.

I think your sister would be well advised to resign. What a mess

I agree. The shop doesn't sound particularly well managed if there's no CCTV and stock isn't regularly accounted for. But that's no excuse.

The management will likely do stock takes out of hours. Your sister will not be privy to information about the systems and checks in place. Shop floor staff never are, which is why so many get caught stealing.
They will look for patterns and timings of stock losses, drops in sales on certain days and at certain times, items scanned through the till then cancelled and by whom... You would be surprised at what information an epos system can tell you.

Thanks all for the replies. She's not a terrible person, just a bit greedy and unable to resist the many snacks available there, it's quite an expensive store as in £2.95 for a big bar of choc and £1.90 for a bottle of coke so easy to see how it's mounted up despite how much I wish she just hadn't done it. She's not taken anything for anybody else, and the owner hasn't mentioned anything to her. The figure she's given me now seems the most likely, based on what she said she eats averagely per day and the prices of those items.

This is the first time she's ever done something really wrong and can tell she's very remorseful, she just noticed how lax they were and how the owner pointed out certain regulars who are allowed to have a 'tab' and after that she just grabbed anything she craved with the intention of paying for it later as it was a cash only store and she like me never pulls out cash and relies pretty much solely on card. She just didn't keep tab of what she was taking and let it go on for too long, and didn't tell her boss which is where I've pointed out it turns from a 'tab' into theft. She seems genuinely sorry and willing to make it right, I just want to know how she can repay the money without having to get tarnished in a very small close knit community as a thief and somebody not to hire, when really she's just been a bit naive and doesn't need it hanging over her head going forward.

She's insistent that they don't monitor stock apart from selling it or writing it off when it goes out of date, but many posters are correct in that she wouldn't know this for sure. So what's her best means of repaying this debt without alerting suspicions? I'd be very very surprised if they went through the effort of paying for and installing cameras for this, if they had any suspicions I'm sure they'd just raise it with her knowing the family who own it personally but again I guess we cant be sure.

It seems your sister has learnt a lesson let her pay back £5 a day till she reckons its covered. Yes its theft and wrong but we all make mistakes! If she is genuinely sorry she may actually overestimated how much she has taken. Then she really needs to find another job one which does not put her at risk. Dont worry about covert cameras firstly there has be reasonable suspicion to use hidden cameras which is unlikely if your sister is still working alone and if the shop is single manned I doubt a stocktake is done more than annually.