How to catch a thief at work?

[User12944829]

DH is being robbed silly at work - over 20 TVs were taken in one hit last month which is the biggest hit yet but hundreds, near thousands of pounds worth of inventory is going missing every month. It's definitely staff due to access restrictions. Unfortunately three different departments all have access to where these items were, the managers of these departments have all been in their roles for years and he doesn't imagine it'd be them, more likely a member of the extensive teams, but he's concerned to go to them to say to keep an eye on their staff incase it is them and he's given away that he knows. He wants to try and catch them to make sure they are fired and hopefully charged rather than they secretly get wind and just stop stealing and remain employed here, but can't afford this much loss whilst trying to gather evidence. Very limited budget wise to what new measures he can bring it to tackle it. What would you do?

How on earth are people getting TVs out of a building unchallenged? That's insane. We had someone try to steal a TV once at work and it was the most obvious thing you've ever seen in your life. He got 25 yards before he abandonned the idea.

High value electronics are all stored in one area which is fully covered by CCTV and is restricted access. Security are based outside so they can see exactly who went in, what they took and where they took it.

All entrances and exits from the building also have CCTV. Staff and customers are unable to remove anything large without being noticable on camera.

If you are losing hundreds/thousands a month use that money to invest in proper security. That means CCTV and a security guard.

At the retail company I work for - CCTV, frequent spot searches of staff by managers, locker checks, lockers provided that car keys need to be stored in from starting work until work is finished with discovery of said key during spot search being something that then enables a vehicle search to be conducted if said vehicle is on company property. Security guard who will spot check random orders going out to ensure that they contain what the paperwork says they do (with the ability to identify who has handled that order). All high value / often stolen goods are tagged although a member of staff would have the ability to remove or deactivate tags easily I appreciate.

What sort of business is it OP? When you say he's being robbed blind, is he the owner? Seems crazy to have high value equipment stored somewhere without security.

To be honest if it's that easy to steal these items, I'm not surprised some people think it's ok to help themselves.

It's a holiday resort. The park has a 24/7 security team and CCTV in the main stores/buildings. It's definitely an inside job possibly involving multiple staff. With the large amount of TVs going missing it was a case of them each being taken from separate caravans. It's a massive park and CCTV can only be afforded in the key areas where it already is.

Don't assume that the goods were ever physically there at all.

Look for a paper trail. Trace everything from the original purchase orders, goods in, delivery notes, POD, invoices the lot. They may well have been booked in as received, but were actually never delivered to the building but 'fell off the back of the lorry' and into someone else's hands instead.

You need an expert to conduct a thorough examination of your accounting procedures, and the stock side as well. I smell a loophole.

Ah - cross posted.

Has he considered planting a few tracking devices into some new replacement TVs, and then following them when they take a 'walk'?

@AventaRizon I was thinking the same thing as you that stuff may have never made it off the truck, etc. That said OP, I would probably implement the spot check idea that @DeadCertain mentioned above. How much budget does he have? He needs to put that money toward more boots on the ground security and actually hire an external firm to come in. He could likely hire a private investigator to pretend like it's a new low paid employee to gather intelligence.

I once worked for a company and some of their computers started going missing (from people's desk). Turned out to be Mr Nice Guy that everyone knew who had worked there for 25 years. Don't ever rule people out because of length of service. You don't know what's going on in their personal lives.

I would implement new processes and procedures that requires more checks by management or key staff, or as someone else said spot checks. The trouble is with spot checks, the culprits may guess why and then temporarily stop until it starts up again, unless the spot checks continue indefinitely. If people are walking out with TV's then the existing systems are not robust enough. Tighten them up. Make people more accountable for everything.

It's hard to say without knowing the full layout of the park. Is there a single entry/exit point? If so, you could implement spot checks for staff cars going out. They aren't carrying the TVs out. If there is a staff car park, you could also set up a camera in the car park.You should be able to catch them loading the TVs into their car.

Don't stop at the tv's. Check everything. Bar stock and food deliveries especially.

Where do all the staff live? I'd suspect the ones who live off-site first.

You need somebody on the inside. And you need this thread taken down before someone reads it and puts two and two together about who you are. You need to catch them red-handed, not scare them off.

There is already a massive security team, along with a massive maintenance team and a massive housekeeping team who all have access to the individual caravan keys, the master keys. Even caravan sales and reception staff need access to these keys on a daily basis. There are hundreds of staff who could be to blame. Security do regular patrols all throughout the day and night, however with so many thousands of caravans over such a vast area it would be fairly easy to avoid them I imagine. A large amount of our staff live on park and could be stealing outside of their working hours, it could be being done sneakily on shift, there's just so many possibilities it's almost impossible to know where to begin.

I think it's going to be difficult in that kind of environment. If the TVs were security marked that could help trace them - let's say one turns up in a pawn shop then the shop might have the seller's details. (Depends how stupid the crook was).

A discreet tracker on a TV might catch any future thieves.

I don't see how you can even be totally sure it's an inside job. Holiday guests nick stuff all the time. Sure, 20 TVs in a short time period is suspicious, but it could just be luck, or a group of guests all with the same idea. Had any groups of dodgy people staying lately?

You may just have to try and deter further theft by bolting the TVs to mountings rather than having them sitting loose.

@safariboot They weren't robbed from vans that had holidaymakers in. They were robbed from vacant locked vans that a whole range of staff could access but holidaymakers couldn't without breaking and entering of which there was no evidence. There's a pattern of this ongoing and what's going missing from where definitely raises alerts that staff are involved. Unfortunately it's not just TVs going amiss.

It's a cultural problem. As you say its theft on a massive scale. More work into cameras and security staff will just foster more of an antagonistic environment and your funds to supervise will still be limited.

Team meetings, regular updates with everybody advising them of long term (repercussions- redundancies, reduction in rent, tronger supervision, staff being logged in or out etc)

Create a whistleblowing system, managerial bonuses for resolving the problem, regular updates on theft with staff, spread the responsibility for stock checking, stronger supervision of keys for vans or car park gates or whatever.

Even caravan sales and reception staff need access to these keys on a daily basis.

OP, you said that they were taken from vacant, locked vans. Is there a reason so many people need access to vacant vans?

Can you use a loss prevention service? They will put hidden cameras in and catch the theives. Used them many times to catch and dismiss theiving staff from retail environment. About 2k for a small premises, don't know about larger.

Do staff have to sign keys in and out for the vacant vans so that you know who has accessed them, why and when?

I'd bring in the police and have everyone questioned

He wants to try and catch them to make sure they are fired and hopefully charged rather than they secretly get wind and just stop stealing
Why? The important thing is to stop the theft, not to chase thieves.
Screw down the TVs so they aren't stealable. A few bolts are cheaper than CCTV, loss prevention services etc. Ask Police for suggestions.

He needs to assume that everyone is in on it until the culprit(s) are found. So tell him not to share any future security strategy with any staff/management from now on.

Then, hire an external company (from out of town) to investigate.

You. dont want to tip anyone off just yet.

It sounds like an appalling set up from a management/security point of view.

What have the owners said? How will the loss be accounted for? Insurance? Write-off? Does he have an asset tracking system or register?

Also ask your Insurers for their advice. And fellow park-owners or the industry association (assuming such a thing exists).

senua of course he wants to find out who is doing this. It's not just about stopping it. The company needs to know so they can get rid of the person/s. You can't have people with this level of dishonesty working for you. They will just do something else dishonest if you boot down the TVs

The OP asked "WWYD?" so I gave my response. Don't waste time playing detective, concentrate on prevention.
I suppose if he wants to kick someone's ass to make himself feel better then he can start with the Head of Security.

So new rule. Vacant caravans arent accesible by anyone but the manqger for any reason. There seems to be no other way to prevent thefts on such a big park and on such a grand scale. Is there a way of bllting the tvs in? Or alarming them if they’re moved?