Apprehension of an Evasive Thief

Southern Refreshment Services Inc., a vending operation based in Tucker, Ga., recently identified the source of $8,000 in cash losses following an extensive internal investigation by my company, Loss Prevention Results Inc. in Wake Forest, N.C. Through the course of the investigation, a company technician was formally interrogated by myself and company co-owner Dan Hart. The technician was terminated for violation of company work rules.

An individual who had worked for seven vending companies in the greater Atlanta area, and who was a former co-worker of the terminated technician at another vending company, was caught on covert video stealing $37 from a machine using a key. In spite of police apathy, even in the face of indisputable video evidence against the individual (who was on probation for theft from stealing from another vending company with 10 arrests on his rap sheet), Hart pursued successful criminal charges.

Following is a question and answer session between myself and Hart.

Manney: Dan, this is a fascinating case covering elements across a wide spectrum of industry theft problems and solutions; high dollar cash theft, key control, public machine rip offs, covert camera investigations, time theft, GPS investigation, background investigations, interrogations based on evidence, case jacket documentation, police indifference, owner persistence, court room drama, and eventually, justice! Explain what happened, starting at the beginning.

Hart: At the end of August, we purchased the local operation of another company. For us, it was a huge acquisition/merger of 17 routes. We have never bitten off this much before. You lose focus on your normal day-to-day operations just trying to absorb this many new people into your process, into your building, into your culture. It was daunting. As we went through the process in September and October, large unexplained shortages hit us right from the beginning.

Manney: Cash shortages?

Hart: Serious cash shortages. This type of cash loss is highly unusual for our operation, so we immediately started changing locks. That slowed it down, but it didn’t stop. These were all brand new expensive locks that we purchased. Then the cash losses reared back up and we spent another $10,000 on more brand new locks.

To be safe, we further narrowed down the master key situation. We also made sure that the route people only had one key to their route, and still the shortages continued. We placed three VendingCams we already had out, trying to find out what was going on, and we also got our new route drivers on handhelds to track product and cash movement.

Manney: When were the new employees put on handhelds?

Hart: As quickly as we could, but it takes time and concentrated focus to put 17 route drivers on a handheld for the first time, all at once. We also focused on two large public accounts that we were having the most losses at, accounts where anyone could walk in with access to the machines.

Manney: What type of businesses were they?

Hart: One was a hospital and the other one was a university. We put out our three VendingCams, but didn’t get a hit. That’s when I called you back in and bought several of the new VendingCam IIs, scattering them back out as well. Then the law of averages kicked in. We videotaped a guy on a Saturday at 7 a.m. stealing $37. The video was crystal clear, but we had no idea of who he was.

Manney: And he had keys to the machine?

Hart: That was the strange part; the lock on the machine he opened with a key was changed one week prior to the videotaped theft. Again, taking the old key from the route driver, bringing it back in here, total key control on the new keys, giving another master key to the service technician, verifying that we had control of all of our master keys. In the video, the thief walks up, has two keys in his hands on a regular ring, puts one in the machine, opens it up, and helps himself to all the dollar bills.