Most employers would like to think that their employees would never steal from them. It’s one thing if someone only worked for you for a few weeks. But to learn that a long-time employee is stealing from the company can be a very bitter pill to swallow. Not only will you have to address the theft, but you’ll also be losing a valuable employee. Our private investigator in Greenville has seen every type of situation imaginable. We’ve seen grandmothers working at department stores and taking from the till. We have seen young housewives take a part-time job only so that they can steal your products. Rather than be a victim in this sort of scheme, you should contact a Greenville private eye and have them investigate the matter for you.
One of the nice things about hiring a private investigator in Greenville is that they can look at the situation with an open mind. They won’t be blinded by the fact that your employees are so friendly and helpful when they’re being watched. They also have no personal connection to any of your staff, so they won’t feel that tension between wanting to do the right thing and losing an employee that you care about. If you think somebody is stealing from the company, your best avenue of redress is to retain a Greenville private eye and let them put a case together for you to take to the police. We do offer our clients a free estimate so they can decide if this is the best option for them.
Most Employers Don’t Want to Think That Their Employees Would Steal from Them
One of the hardest things for our private investigators in Greenville to do with a new client is convince them to stay out of the investigation. So many clients come to us with piles of information and notes and screen-prints thinking that they’re helping us do our job. We may come back to you for this information later. However, you are much better off if you leave us to our own devices, at least in the beginning.
Because so many employers have faith in their employees, they usually tend to overlook information that would be very helpful. At the same time, they seek out information based on their assumptions of their people that could lead us down a dead end.
What Are Some of the Things You Should Look Out For?
For the most part, aside from embezzlement, employee theft usually involves retail stores. By this we mean grocery stores, convenience stores, department stores, and even hardware stores. Any place that deals in cash can look like a ripe opportunity for an employee looking to scam a few extra dollars from their company. some of the things we always tell our clients to be on the lookout for include the following:
- an unusually high number of returns for cash payments
- an increase in the number of damaged products listed by your employees
- old receipts being saved for no good reason
- customers complaining that their credit cards were charged for the wrong amount
- customers upset that the employee refused to give them a receipt
Of course, this is not an exhaustive list and there are plenty of things we could have added. We just wanted to highlight the things that our private investigator in Greenville looks for first when conducting this type of investigation.
What Do You Do if You Can Prove Someone is Stealing from the Company?
If you personally catch an employee stealing, you’ll be tempted to do one of two things. You will either want to confront them and fire them on the spot. Or you’ll call the police and have them arrested for theft. Until you’ve spoken with your investigator in Greenville, neither of these are good options.
If you immediately accuse the employee of theft and fire them, you give yourself little to no chance of collecting the necessary evidence to prove what they were doing. You also give them the opportunity to file for unemployment hoping that you would never be able to prove that they stole from your company. The other option of calling the police is also troublesome. The police will ask you to provide them with any evidence you may have. Months can go by without any charges being filed because your evidence is simply too weak. This means that you’ll never get your money back, and that other employees think they too could steal from the company and not be caught.
A Private Investigator in Greenville Can Collect Additional Evidence for You
As we stated in the opening, employers don’t want to believe that their employees would steal from them. In our experience, we have found that most of the time, the employee who are committing the thefts has a very good relationship with their employer. Many of them have worked for the company for years before anybody caught on to what was happening. One way to look at that is that you’re losing a valuable employee who worked hard for you for a long time. Another way to look at it is that they only stayed with you because you were oblivious to the fact that they were stealing from you on a daily basis. When it comes to business, you can’t let it get personal. Our private investigators in Greenville are completely detached from the situation and can look at things objectively without allowing emotion to get in the way.
In fact, one of our tactics is to do an initial investigation without having any specific information on the employees. Greenville private eye such as the ones that work at our firm would rather make their own assessment of this situation. Once a client gives us background on a certain employee, it has the potential to skew our opinion of them either positively or negatively. The last thing we would want to do is focus on an employee simply because they have a poor attendance record. Likewise, we would never want to ignore an employee simply because they’ve been there for a long time and always show up on time for work.
If you truly think someone is stealing from your company, you able to yourself to contact the private investigator in Greenville.