Very often, our private investigators are called for corporate investigative matters -including various matters including fraud and employee theft.
A 2013 survey from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners showed that during the holidays, fraud and theft in the workplace actually go up by about 20%. According to the FBI, workplace theft actually costs companies a collective $37 billion annually.
With the holidays now over and the new year upon us, I thought we’d look back on a couple interesting employee theft stories I found from December 2014.
Radio Shack theft
Police in Laurel, Maryland arrested three people on December 10 and are charging them with theft. Two of the individuals were current Radio Shack employees, while the third arrested was a former employee.
During two incidents, the store lost more than $55,000 in merchandise and cash. The employees set up fake robberies at the store, and made it appear to the police as though someone had actually held them up. However, one of the items stolen in the second incident actually had GPS tracking data in it, and this led the police right to a vehicle driven by a former employee. They found cash and mobile phones from the store.
Wal-Mart theft
In early December, two Portage, Indiana Wal-Mart employees were arrested as suspects in a theft at the store where they worked, and there is currently a possible third suspect in the case. Both Jasmine Alvarez and Brishana Sims were charged with felony theft, and the unnamed third woman will be facing the same.
They had a simple and easily detectable plan: They would price match and void items for one another at their cash registers. They thought that by having the three of them working together in the scheme, it would avoid suspicion. However, Wal-Mart has a devout loss prevention team working in most of their stores, and employee theft is one of the top things they look for. In all, the three are thought to have stolen around $750 in items.
What we offer to prevent fraud and theft
Martin Investigative Services offers a number of services to help businesses help prevent and stop matters of fraud and theft.
When it comes to hiring employees, Martin’s background check services are affordable, and provide a more complete picture of potential hires.
If you believe your business is the victim of theft, we provide interview and interrogation services that are proven to provide results in a short amount of time.