Shop Lifting, Check Fraud, Employee Theft Burglaries, vandalism, Hold ups

 

Shop Lifting, Check Fraud, Employee Theft

Burglaries, vandalism, Hold ups

Purse Snatching, Slip & Fall Scams Workman’s Comp and other insurance fraud etc.

It is a wonder any one can stay in business and make a profit.

And we all end up paying for it like it or not.

It is time to deal with those who take from society

And give nothing in return.

 

By: Nick Markowitz Jr.

Citizen Patriot

 

You know some days I just shake my head and wonder why any one would even bother to try and open up and run any type of retail business, especially a grocery store.

Recently I worked in an affluent neighborhood where I installed anti-shoplifting cameras.

The owner of the store wanted them in the meat and health/cosmetics aisle where he was experiencing an unusual amount of theft. To my surprise, in the health aisle a young white male was picked up and arrested by the store detective for stealing hemorrhoid cream! What in the world would someone be stealing hemorrhoid cream for?  Well, it turned out that the young man was from the neighborhood and he was

 

a heroin junky a Thief / Burglar known to the police and he was stealing the hemorrhoid cream to cover and heal the needle track marks on his arms. Heroin in this neighborhood I thought to my self but like the police who responded and took the young man to jail told me because it is an affluent neighborhood the kids have more money available and can afford the more expensive heroin over crack cocaine. In fact Heroin is a very major drug problem in affluent neighborhoods and accounts for 70% of crimes in these areas.

Now had this thief gotten away with the goods it would have cost the store a lot more than the $1.85 as stores work on a 1-2% profit margin it has to sell 184 more tubes of cream to make back what was stolen. Shoplifting costs millions annually and accounts for 15/25% shrinkage costs when running a business. Yes there is only a 1-2% profit margin in the grocery business because even though you pay $2.00 for a bag of chips the store pays $.20 for after you figure in wages, rent or mortgage, employees benefits, electric, phone gas bills, taxes, insurance etc. plus all the money loss to thefts broken discarded items etc there is only 1-2% left.

I was then working at this same business a month later adding more cameras in the back stock room and front of store to help stop groceries from going out the back door by employees or from employees who were under ringing items for friends a  $20.00 steak all of a sudden becomes a $0.45 can of soup. And to stop the slip and fall lawsuit scams.

I heard screams and protests and the store employees were angry with the owner and me.

They said they would damage the cameras I put up and the owner in writing warned each and every one of them the consequences of their actions would result in termination and prosecution. And there would be no tolerance.   I put the cameras up and several employees including a manager quit and amazingly enough the inside employee theft problem came to an end along with boxes getting damaged and machines breaking and money and groceries disappearing.

And there have been no more slip and slid problems either.

I then had a restaurant owner who wanted to upgrade his camera he always had one in the bar area to record fights and people trying to help them selves to free drinks but know he wanted one out side in a small walkway area were he has walk-in coolers to hold extras. Because he was having problems with employees loafing and not working and stealing food from the kitchen. 3 weeks after I installed the cameras I get a horrifying phone call the owner informs me he came to work that morning and found a large pile of dog Poop

Outside one of the cooler doors. At first he thought a dog had done it till he went to clean it up and found it was human waste with napkins in it which the perpetrator had used to clean him self. The owner went in and rolled back the tape and found that at 7:30 in the morning his bread deliveryman walked down the walk way dropped his pants and relived him self. Even though you could clearly see the back door to the restaurant was open and he could have used the toilet inside or he could have used the one in the fast food joint which was open across the way. The owner of the restaurant calls the bread company whose owner came and saw the tape and then did nothing to the driver because he was a teamster’s Union member. The man should have been terminated and criminally charged

He put his unclean hands on the bread delivery bags of every one he delivered to that morning. Possibly spreading infection with it.

I still remember the day in the 80s I put a hidden camera in a supermarket to catch an employee in the office who was ringing up Soda Bottle return receipts and putting the money in her pocket ends up she was the Union Steward so the owners wanted hard evidence against her and she ended up on probation and paying restitution

But she did not loose her job I was later told however she was sent to a different store and not allowed to work in the office area. It is no wonder why that Grocery chain left town. Recently I installed a hidden camera in a large school cafeteria were some one was pocketing the cash employees put in a cup under a counter after they bought breakfast

2-3 dollars missing every day and over a year nearly $1000.00 dollars missing. Enough was enough I came in at 3:00 am put the camera in and the next morning they caught a 73 year old woman who was getting a good pension beside the excellent money she was making at the school.  Then there’s the case of an executive at a Nuclear Power station who I meet at one of the Eagle Scout dinners who lost his $150,000.00 a year job when it was discovered he had embezzled $700.00 from an employee benefit fund.

And the thievery goes on and on.

I had a customer of a now defunct large hardware store who suspected his own brother was ripping him off and in deed he was we set the alarm system at the warehouse he owned so the brothers code would not work and instead trip the silent alarm the police who were aware of what we had done arrived to find the brother with several appliances loaded into a truck ready to steal them.

I have used this and the trick of recording alarm activations and deactivations to catch many inside theft problems. Once at a dark room facility I set up the alarm so all codes etc would be recorded and also all out going phone numbers would be recorded as we suspected things were gong on in the business and we were correct. We caught employees coming back after work and using film and darkroom supplies and running the lab to use for personnel work and making personnel long distance phone calls on the business phones.

Of course after they were caught they could not figure out why they were being prosecuted. Every one steals from their employer what they told me what was the problem they stole because they were not being paid what they were worth and this is how they justified it in there minds.

I had a distant relative of mine tell me the same thing when I saw all the stuff he had taken from the now closed Steel Mill were he worked.

Millions were stolen from the mills by workers and the bosses them selves who could steal even bigger items and amounts because they could get their vehicles into the mill.

I have had customers who had large expensive multi gang electric meters stolen off the apartment complexes and air conditioner condenser’s taken while the projects were being built.

I had one of my customers who bought an old pizza shop in the north side of Pittsburgh and decided to tear it down and build a new building when we called Duquesne light to come disconnect the electric meter to find out the meter running the shop while it sat half empty for 5 years and only some lights left on and an occasional workmen in the place

Had been stolen from another business in the north side and had been illegally stealing power all those years after there own meter was shut off and removed.

I remember the time with the fire dept when we and the police rolled up to a natural Gas leak call and the occupants of the apartment came out and told us how one of the tenants rigged up a illegal tap to steal power he had taken an unfused extension cord and attached it to the power line coming into the building. Many fatal fires have started this way and many firefighters hurt over people stealing power. Then of course there’s my neighbor who thought it was OK to steal HBO from the cable company till he got busted also. Twice now.

And of course look at all the music CDs being copied and stolen along with DVD movies

In al it adds up to Billions of dollars lost and why we all pay higher prices.

Their needs to be a clear message to all thievery petty or not is wrong and must be stopped.

Often times the thief who steals from work is also stealing else were

Many criminals are habitual and are involved in constant crimes of all types.

The thief who steals cars often shop lifts does illegal drugs steals from his regular work place and burglarizes his neighbors.

When a crime spree hits a business district it is almost always 1-2 gangs hitting all of the places.  The worst part is when those we trust are involved. The state constable and his son in my community are under arrest and charged with Receiving stolen property and several other charges and the son also faces cocaine dealing charges they were both supposedly involved in a 40 + smash and grab burglary ring in the community and neighboring communities for over 4 years now. It infuriates me because I have done work at several of the properties this man owns.

 

It is only getting worse of course all the crimes in my state are being blamed because of poor economic conditions if people had good paying jobs you would not be seeing all the crimes people. Some how get it into their minds, but it is wrong .To think that way. Good times or bad you have crimes and the more you tolerate things as a social problem the worse it will get.

 

Until we take a strong stand against criminals yes that is what they are then just sit back and do not complain the next time you get ripped off or the high prices you pay in the stores.

Shoplifters need jail time and rehabilitation with meaning as well as all other criminals and if they come out and start the criminal ways again then off to prison they go for life. As they are no longer contributing to society just taking and hurting all.

We need to start in our schools and in our homes that stealing and vandalism and all other crimes are wrong and there are penalties for doing so.

It is not OK to steal from an employer a store a record company or the cable company.