Worried friend's partner is stealing

[hecouldntbesostupid]

I came across a local eBay account that I am certain is my friend's partner's.

He works for a large engineering company, and has a responsible, well paid job. Over the past six months he has sold over £10000 worth of what is obviously very technical engineering and computer equipment. From what I can see this can only have come from his work place. I suppose he could be selling it for the company but it seems very odd. I know they have had money problems recently, as she lost her job in the first lockdown. Do I mention this to her or do I keep well out of it? There may be a perfectly innocent explanation for it anyway.

Its more than likely his own 'hobby' stuff he is selling - unless you have actual proof its stolen I'd stay out of it!

@Sportysporty that's what I'm leaning towards. I don't have proof so I think it's best not to mention it at all.

I’d step away. You don’t know 100% it’s him and you don’t know 100% it’s stolen goods. He could easily be in the know of where to buy them low cost and selling them on too.

Why are you worried, it's absolutely none of your business! How do you know where the equipment came from, it could have been his and he's sold it because of the money problems.

He could be selling work stuff legitimately.
We are relocating at work and I have been tasked with getting rid of junk/selling unused items etc.
We discussed using eBay and it was complicated to them get the money back in the business so I was going to use my eBay account for the odd thing and then cash would then go into petty cash but there were then some high ticket items so I didn’t want to put those through for tax reasons so we did then set up a work eBay and PayPal account.

Yes, definitely been overthinking this. I'm stepping right back!

Keep out

You're clutching at straws here, and not a great friend if your mind goes straight yo assuming he's a theif

I'd stay well out of it. If he works in that industry then it's likely he will have contacts and knowledge of where to get stuff that's maybe end of line or from companies going bust etc and be selling it on.

My BIL is a computer engineer and is always selling things personallynon Facebook and similar - computers he's made or fixed or sourced from a contact. But it's all legit and things he does in his spare time - it wouldn't cross my mind to think he was stealing it from work!

My brother's lab caught a guy stealing, his sale photo was actually of the item in situ on the shelf in the store room of the lab, a guy was searching for equipment for the lab and recognised the picture.

I don't know how you could broach it with your friend though.

Or even if you should without knowing for sure

Keep well out of it.

1. Why do you care?
2. you have no evidence
3. why do you care?

If he's stealing from work he's a special kind of idiot to be being so blatant that people can recognise his eBay account.

It might be stuff the company doesn't need any more. Quite often if it's end of line stuff or been superseded by newer equipment employees are allowed to take it or put in an offer.

I agree you don’t know enough to do anything. You would need more proof.

But those of you saying why do you care?
If this was an old lady being robbed you would care.
Stealing from a company , if he is, is theft just as much as stealing from an individual. In the long term corporate theft can lead to job losses!

But there’s no evidence of theft going on here, so what’s the problem?

Report it to his employer, they will be able to investigate. Most places have CCTV these days and everything being scrapped should be logged in the same way purchases are.

It may well be that he is taking scrapped equipment and fixing it unofficially before selling it on for his own gain - the company need to be made aware of this urgently because it may mean he is selling unsafe equipment.

Of course he might be legitimately selling it with the company's permission.

I work for a company that sells odds and sods on ebay at times.
The account has a staff members name on it.

A few years ago we moved offices. We had quite a lot of old stuff which we did not need any more and we needed a clear out. One of my staff asked if we minded if he sell some of the stuff we had on Ebay which we were going to bin. We were very happy to do this, as it saved skip space, and felt more environmentally sensitive. Nothing personal or sensitive, but for example we had an old reception table which he very entrepreneurially billed as "factory chic". Your friend might have the same deal? Interestingly this staff member did surprisingly well out of the sale!

Years ago we had a colleague who was found to have stolen equipment. They'd been selling the items on eBay. I'm sure it comes as no surprise that they were marched off the premises for gross misconduct.

Wow! Leaping to conclusions much?