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?

Smart water the ones in the vacant vans.
Set a few vans up with a smart watered tv in each one then wait.
I did this at work with some expensive items that kept ' going missing'. Within 2 days we had the thief caught, arrested and charged.

Agree with Smart Water. We looked into that at work for a similar thing. A really good solution.

A really good solution.
Pun intended?

Keys signed in and out would be start.

Covert cctv on the keys. Suspect anyone who knows or could tell which vans are vacant. My initial thoughts are security themselves are guilty as they would find it easier to get away with, fewer questions from other staff. The perp is highly likely to have former convictions, not many people would be this brazen on a first offence. So run checks on staff, install and check cameras and you yourself needs to be VISIBLE, question any member of staff not where they are supposed to/ expected to be.

When the vans are vacant is when people need to go in them the most - to clean, check, do maintenance jobs, put inventory in, dress them, advertise etc. Our staff need to go in and out of so many hundreds of vans each day that most carry master keys that can get them in to each van. Housekeeping have lists of what vans they've cleaned that day and maintenance have lists of what jobs but there's no way to police whether they're going into different vans. If we clamp down on keys it'll halt the amount of work being done dramatically. I'll suggest some of the other suggestions to him though. Thank you all

If multiple people are entering one van, then each van needs a sign in sheet so that you can see who has been in there.

They will be selling the TVs somewhere, look on selling sites for the model number etc and see if any thing pops up that is recognisable.

Surely you need the police for finger printing at the least.

I would be suspecting absolutely everyone. When I worked in a major supermarket the well-liked night shift manager and wines and spirits manager were arranging for thousands of pounds worth of alcohol to go out the back gate in the back of a van whilst the night shift were having their main break. They were caught eventually.

Honestly, I would be getting a specialist in hospitality industry security in to take a look at your systems and see what could be improved, but in the meantime smart water and a few covert cameras in random caravans might be good.

When I worked in a warehouse we all got our bags and cars checked by security on the way out

It sounds like a no cost place to start might be sorting out a better system for the access to the keys, there is too much open access. To avoid tipping the thrives off this could be implemented because of "insurance rules".

I'm not sure exactly how your DH would do this, but he needs a system where he knows who has had which keys when, maybe signing them in and out. Then spot checks following visits to caravans.

Also, security marking everything as mentioned above.

Hope it gets sorted, horrible to have such a breach of trust.

Also, staff entrance with CCTV and member of staff.

This would make my blood boil and I'd want to catch them too. As the vans don't have holidaymakers in them could you set a few up with a cheap camera? There are some really cheap spy type things on ebay we looked at them as we were having ornaments taken from our front garden.

Or, take all tvs out of empty vans and keep them in a room that's locked and has only supervised access, if a guest checks in to a van that hasn't got a TV then a member of the team checks one out and takes it to the van. Sounds extreme but will make it harder to sneak them away.

@Mydollymolly how were the thieves of the smart watered devices caught? My understanding is that they'd still need to be found out, it's just the smart water confirms it?

Have you checked ebay, gumtree or local selling sites for anyone selling the tvs. My boss did this and pretended to be interested in buying turned up at the door and confronted the thief, only works for really not very bright thieves.

I’d start by finding a new head of security...

Periodic staff vehicle searches at end of shift?
CCTV on staff parking areas.

Wally Finger printing is of no use when people have legitimate access to the vans.

I'm sorry if I've missed this but why is your husband investigating. Have the police failed to find the culprit? Surely the managers already know everyone is under suspicion?

I’ve no answers for you but what a bugger of a problem to deal with!

Spot checks on staff vehicles at the end of the shift?

To whoever suggested working with the police for suggestions and using Smart Water or similar, yes good idea.

We use SelectaDNA at home - this was given to us for free from the police after a spate of burglaries in the local area. You can mark up the individual items with stickers to say they are protected and have signs on the vans. The police said it reduced burglaries by up to 85% because thieves thought somehow their DNA was being captured. It is a clear liquid you mark your belongings with and they can be scanned and traced back to you. This might not help with finding the thief but they said it was equally a good deterrent. Also, nail stuff down so it can't be lifted easily (TV's for example).

There are loads of things you can do, sending out a letter with payslips to all employees saying that the police have been involved and all items are now being tracked/traced etc (you can make something plausible up) would be worthwhile. If so many employees its impossible to hold a company wide meeting then you can inform of changes to security via different means of communication.

You can get little tracking devices that can be hidden. If the tv moves you can get a notification on email then track the tv. This could solve the problem.

One place I worked had a huge problem with theft. It was the security staff who were stealing.