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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to ask you to help me figure out who is half inching money from the till at work…

54 replies

SlamLikeAGuitar · 08/12/2021 12:20

I work in a small, family-owned establishment.
On the payroll, there’s me, 6 other staff, the owner and his bookeeper.
Then there’s the owner’s DP and a few of their family members who come and go from the living space upstairs.
Every week for the last few weeks, there’s been notes left from the bookeeper stating that the till was short the previous day. Sometimes it’s clear that someone has just made a mistake while ringing through an order - £4.30 short for example because someone hit the button for a pint of cider twice. It happens.
But more recently, the till has been short by some pretty even figures Hmm Like over the weekend, it was an even £20 short. And the week before, an even £30 short. Nothing on our food menu or in the bar costs a round figure, except bar snacks. So unless someone’s been ringing through 30 packets of peanuts and not taking for them, my gut instinct is that the cash has been nabbed.
Now it’s not me. And 3 of the other bar staff have been working there for years and it’s never been a problem until now, so I don’t think it’s any of those 3.
My suspect pool are the 3 newer staff and the family members (a few of them teenagers) who come and go.
It’s bugging me. It’s putting the management in a bad mood because they are being stolen from. And it makes me a little nervous about my own belongings while I’m working. The owner of the place is the kind of guy who would move the Earth to help any of his staff out if we needed it, so the idea of someone stealing from him is horrible.
Do I go all Sherlock Holmes and try to catch whoever it is out? Or just drop it and hope they get caught Confused

OP posts:
SlamLikeAGuitar · 08/12/2021 13:30

It’s an old-style till where you don’t need a key or ID to open it - just a “no sale” button. The till roll does show how many times the no sale button has been pressed, but doesn’t log the time. Since we’ve had the Christmas raffle going, and a weekly football lottery, the money for those gets put in bags in the till, so “no sale” presses have been quite frequent because of that.
Me and one of the other staff I’m often on shift with have started making a point of writing down on a piece of paper if we happen to make a mistake ringing anything through, so when cashing up, whoever it is can see what the mistake was and account for it.

OP posts:
Puzzledandpissedoff · 08/12/2021 13:38

A camera above the till is the only way to know for sure I suppose isn’t it?

Yes, it probably is, and that's what I'd suggest to the manager (though otherwise staying out of it)

As a PP said, this would also protect the innocent from any allegations; it's going to be bad enough if it turns out to be one of the family, without mud being flung at everyone else

honeylulu · 08/12/2021 14:38

As its an old fashioned till, has it been checked over to see if it's jamming at all. When I had a Saturday job very many years ago money kept going missing always £10 or £20 increments. Always the same till (one of two). It was horrible, everyone wondering who it was and management watching like a hawk.

One day till completely jammed and someone came out to have a look. Turned out the back of the drawer had partly dislodged and many notes has wedged down the back. Finally it got too stuffed to close at all!

Cocomarine · 08/12/2021 14:56

@SlamLikeAGuitar

It’s an old-style till where you don’t need a key or ID to open it - just a “no sale” button. The till roll does show how many times the no sale button has been pressed, but doesn’t log the time. Since we’ve had the Christmas raffle going, and a weekly football lottery, the money for those gets put in bags in the till, so “no sale” presses have been quite frequent because of that. Me and one of the other staff I’m often on shift with have started making a point of writing down on a piece of paper if we happen to make a mistake ringing anything through, so when cashing up, whoever it is can see what the mistake was and account for it.
Is money left in it overnight? The “no sale” buttons usually make a loud ding noise, let alone the sound of the drawer opening - is it unattended enough for family members to open it?! Where is this bar anyway - 1992? 🤣
CherryRedDMs · 08/12/2021 15:00

It could be that someone is tricking the staff to give the wrong change. There are well known tricks where you go back and forward with two tens and a twenty and the customer /scammer ends up keeping all £40.

SlamLikeAGuitar · 08/12/2021 15:06

@Cocomarine no money left in the till overnight, the cash drawer and change box are both taken up to the office in the flat at closing every night, but as far as I’m aware the office isn’t locked.

OP posts:
SlamLikeAGuitar · 08/12/2021 15:06

And yeah….it’s like working in a time warp Grin

OP posts:
nothingcanhurtmewithmyeyesshut · 08/12/2021 18:10

Is it an older till with physical till roll? If so just have every staff member count the till at the beginning of their shift and sign the till roll stating how much was in there. They then keep the key on their person and are responsible for the till until the end of their shift.

If you lift the till once or twice during the day, it won't take that long.

IncompleteSenten · 08/12/2021 18:12

Suggest he gets CCTV

ClaryFairchild · 08/12/2021 23:29

Keep a tab of when the money is going missing and who has worked shifts on those days. You might see a pattern emerging.

HeadPain · 09/12/2021 01:12

@honeylulu

As its an old fashioned till, has it been checked over to see if it's jamming at all. When I had a Saturday job very many years ago money kept going missing always £10 or £20 increments. Always the same till (one of two). It was horrible, everyone wondering who it was and management watching like a hawk.

One day till completely jammed and someone came out to have a look. Turned out the back of the drawer had partly dislodged and many notes has wedged down the back. Finally it got too stuffed to close at all!

Same happened at one of my old workplaces
HeadPain · 09/12/2021 01:13

I don't know if it was an "old fashioned till"

wombat1a · 09/12/2021 01:36

Has to be more regular cash checks on the tills so narrow the time/people down and a security camera.

Every till in every shop here has a very very obvious camera on it and I would guess a far less obvious one too.

RavingAnnie · 09/12/2021 01:56

Well I'd put my money on Nigel.

needmoreshinys · 09/12/2021 02:40

I hope you are not being this keen to find out the methods the owner might be using to find out OP, the only time I have ever known staff members to be overkeen to find out what is going on, is when they are the ones stealing it and they want to find the methods we were using

honeyytoast · 09/12/2021 02:43

£4.30 for a cider? Shock

Userg1234 · 09/12/2021 06:26

I'm a silent partner in a bar, we had this recently. And several times in the past!
1 you need a new modern till. They are not that expensive and each member of staff needs to sign on. It will record everything, every time the till is opened
2 I caught the last person as she was unaware that I am involved in the business and thought I was just a customer
3 the owner needs to tell everyone that the till is down.... including family. It sometimes stops if the person knows they are being watched
4 surprised that the insurance company hasn't already asked for CCTV... again it's not expensive
5 the owner needs to watch the till, be around more
6 the person isn't the brightest, there are ways to do the till with no chance of being caught. So eyes on the till,!

ZoBo123 · 09/12/2021 06:37

I used to work for a major supermarket and was involved in investigating till shorts regularly. As well as cashing up regularly and cameras one other thing to do is to record on a spreadsheet the pattern. The days the till is short and who was working in that day. It often starts off with a fiver a few times then as they get more confident the amount increases. We had one member of staff go from taking a tenner a week to fifty pound a day.

deeedeee · 09/12/2021 06:41

I find it weird that anyone would be stupid enough just the take money out of the till, of course it’s going to be noticed. And to do it repeatedly is even weirder. There are very simple ways to steal from a till as a cashier that are less detectable (perhaps even undetectable) that don’t take a lot of working out. It’s either some kind of mechanical till failure, the teenagers or a really stupid member of staff.

SlamLikeAGuitar · 09/12/2021 06:59

The plot thickens Confused
I arrived at work at 5pm and was met with shouting from upstairs….owner and partner bickering.
She then comes downstairs, switches the cash draw for a new one with just the cash float and tells me that’s going to be done between shifts. Maybe she’s got her head screwed on about cashing up between shifts or has actually caught whoever it is?
Either way, let’s hope it stops.
In other news, the cellar flooded last night Shock so what should have been a quiet, midweek shift, turned into me and two other members of staff ankle deep in manky cellar water Hmm

OP posts:
HolidayTime2021 · 09/12/2021 07:24

@Rainbowshine

The owner needs to contact the police, we had this and they set up a covert camera showing who was going into the safe, combined with some of the rota/cashing up timings mentioned above. We caught the culprit and you don’t know if it’s one of the new people, that’s your assumption that could be wrong.
In what works will the police set ups covert camera for £20

Thy dont event attend burglaries with less that £15k stolen here.

HolidayTime2021 · 09/12/2021 07:25

@honeyytoast

£4.30 for a cider? Shock
Must be a very cheap area!
Rainbowshine · 09/12/2021 09:40

@HolidayTime2021 in our case £3500 went missing from the till and safe, as well as cash out of colleague’s purses. Those £20 will escalate and accumulate - as others have said was their experience when the culprit was interviewed for the investigation at work they admitted it and said it started small with a £10 or £20 note out of the till when no one was looking to taking £100 from the safe twice a week.

LuaDipa · 09/12/2021 10:09

@Rainbowshine

The owner needs to contact the police, we had this and they set up a covert camera showing who was going into the safe, combined with some of the rota/cashing up timings mentioned above. We caught the culprit and you don’t know if it’s one of the new people, that’s your assumption that could be wrong.
The police won’t get involved in this, but they may act if you can obtain and provide video evidence. I say ‘may’ because we had a lot of cast iron video evidence of theft at my previous job and the most anyone ever got was a caution. In most cases there were no charges.
AbsolutelyFuckinFabulousDarlin · 09/12/2021 10:23

I hate things like this , you always feel guilty even though you know you haven't done anything . like when a police car follows you
Hope you get it sorted