Would you report coworker theft?
 

This guy Ive been working with for the last couple years has been robbing my company blind lately, and does it right in front of me. It started out as just a couple < $10 items here and there, but recently Ive been noticing him taking much higher priced ($20+) things out to his car almost every day. Ive told him before he better stop before he gets caught but he just laughs and says something like "Why are you gonna rat on me?"

This guy isn't a really close friend or anything, but I do open with him every morning and he has been out to my house for cookouts a few times...not for a couple years though.

Its really bothering me, I don't want to be a rat but at the same time this shit is wrong and while I cant stand my current boss I do like the owner and his family. Ive told this guy more than once not to do it in front of me but he doesn't listen.

Should I say something to the owner or live by the rule "snitches get stitches"? He would certainly get fired and he has a wife who cant work and three kids at home so that would bother me as much or more than his stealing. And even if I did say something I don't know how to go about it...I cant do it anonymously because I'm the only one there in the mornings with him so they would know it was from me.

In a tough spot here.

repot dat foo

Snitches get stitches.

Yes. You should report him.

"A vessel of sea going snitches"

I hate to break it to you but knowledge of it and doing nothing about it makes you his accomplice.

A small business can get hurt pretty bad with theft like that, eventually causing you to lose your job.

What makes you think he won't blame you when the boss asks why shit is missing? If he steals he will certainly lie about it.

I take it there are no security cameras present

This is why I started the thread and why I feel guilty not doing anything...but at the same time I dont want to be a snitch...ugh...

There are but they dont record and him and I are the only ones there in the morning.

Its been going on for a year or more, I don't think they keep track of our inventory very well.

I don't think the "snitches get stitches" applies here, you're not a rat for telling your boss that an employee is stealing from the company. He's not stealing from your boss, he's stealing from the owner who you said you like. That theft also puts your job at jeopardy, what if he gets caught and rolls over on you saying that you knew about it the whole time? Then you will probably lose your job too.

Never be afraid to do the right thing my man.

You're an idiot.

Seriously.

If it were a one-time deal of some office supplies worth $5-$10 or something? Na. If it's a regularly occurring deal as described? Definitely gotta report that.

Dude, quit stealing and calling him names!

Steal something good for yourself, then turn him in.

What exactly is he stealing?

As uncomfortable as it would be, I would report it. And don't feel bad about his wife and kids -- that's on him. He's the one putting them in harm's way by risking his job.
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If your boss is smart at all, he'll never say anything about you telling. He can't fire a person based on that information. But if you tell him, he'll be able to start watching, and that'll give him what he needs to fire the guy. And the guy really should be fired. He's stealing.

stealing 20 dollar items?

wouldn't the inventory be way off or your cash register be short by the end of the night? How do you cover it up exactly?

Are you clean? He's likely going to unload everything once his job is flashing before him. People typically do shady shit in front others when they know it's not in that person's best interest to sell them out. If that's not the case then he's a dumbass and should be turned it.

This....

And this....

MTG thread

One thing to consider.....

How long has this been going on now? If you tell your boss outright....he might question as to why you didn't tell him the first time it happened? If it's been a while...you might want to think about putting an "anonymous" tip in.

Tell the owner. The owner could then have a meeting with everyone concerning inventory discrepancies . The owner can inform everyone that they are being watched. Maybe the problem will solve itself.

One time when I was working for Airborne Express, a case of Nintendo Gamecubes came through the line and I caught my supervisor stealing it.
To keep my mouth shut, he gave me one...

I was fired soon after for no reason. I'm pretty sure he told the "big boss" it was me who stole the case.

****ing prick.... but this ended up being one of the best things that happened to me because I landed a great job a month later that propelled my career in the field I wanted to be in.


Moral of the story? No ****ing clue.

When I worked at Toys R' Us while I was in college....there were multiple employees that would steal video games all the time. The manager and owner didn't inform everyone that they were being watched. They didn't say shit. Nobody knew anything until a good majority of them got busted.

This kinda reminds me of a time when I was like 16 or 17 working for Montgomery wards.

There was a coworker that I saw stealing a couple times and he would always use the same computer to ring up his sales and was kind of a jerk about it being his computer. One day, I took about 10 of those sticky little security tags upside down by his computer on the floor sticky side up.

When he was leaving the store at closing, the alarm went off and security was always by the door at closing for this exact kind of thing.

He was asked to take his wallet and keys out of his pockets and was asked if he had purchased anything and forgot to disable the security tags.

As he was pulling his wallet out, a bunch of jewelry fell out of his pocket that he had stolen that day and he had the wards card numbers of at least 5 customers written down, too.

I told the girl that headed up loss prevention that I had put those security tags by his computer and they gave me a bonus check (even though I didn't technically tell them he stole anything, they still gave me the bonus) for 500 iirc the next day.

Tell the guy your gonna tell unless he lets you **** his wife.

How the **** would the owners of a smaller business not notice inventory disappearing over a two year period?

Dammit people hire professional accountants like myself to monitor your shit.

I think the whole "snitches get stitches" thing stops being applicable post high school

Thread win!

As was said before, you will be fired and likely charged with theft if you don't report it and they find out you knew. I have a friend dealing with this currently.

IMO, calling out a co-worker who is stealing from your employer isn't really "snitching" anyway.

If you're both getting together and smoking pot, then one of you gets pulled over and spills his guts, you're a snitch.

But one shouldn't be expected to follow the "code" and sit idly by why somebody is robbing a company that employs both of you legitimately.

Stealing from your employer - particularly a small business - is about the lowest thing you can do.

Nope, I'd be honest. Say you know it's been going on, you told him to knock it off, you felt bad for his wife and kids but he won't stop, that's why you didn't report it right away. I think they'll understand that. And as someone else said, they can't fire him just based on what you say. They'll have to let him know somehow that they are watching the inventory, and the gravy train is over.

That depends. Pics of the coworkers wife are needed.

Agreed

Few kinds of people suck worse than a damn thief, turn him in.

Also, MTG#10...did you post this from work, while being on the clock?

is there any other way?

Yeah, who's got time to do this shit at home?

Came for the "none of your business, so just STFU" posts.

Such disappoint.

Money...by surfing the web on company time.

I'm of the thought of talking to the owner. Tell him you have been monitoring inventory and things aren't adding up and maybe a meeting needs to be set up with all employees. That way you can't be accused of ignoring for longer than you really did. It should have never come to this and I agree with some others that you might get burned.

This shouldn't even be a decision. Tell the owners.

It's the employer's responsibility to monitor inventory, not yours, unless you have the words "loss prevention" in your job title.

And bandwith

This. What if they are already aware of it & waiting for the right time to can his ass. Lying to them isn't a good option.

I would tell but first I would hire an attorney if I were you. The fact you knew this was going on for a while and did nothing may place you in very serious water legally. DO NOT assume thee theft you see your co-worker doing i the only theft he is committing. If he were to get caught and you said nothing he might want to take you down with him (misery loves company). If the amount stolen turns out to be hundreds of thousands of $$$$$$$$ it could be very serious for you. But if you told what you knew in the long run it may be better for you but depending on the seriousness and magnitude of the theft you may still have legal consequences.

Please don't tell on me MTG#10

Just PIIHB when you open in the morning. This way when you both get a light jail sentence together, you'll already have that awkwardness out of the way

I own small businesses. ...Please tell your boss asap.

One thing is for sure I wouldn't invite him to any more cookouts.

That's indeed true.

After HS, it's "rats get bats".

This doesn't count as snitching. You have to worry about your family first.

Loose lips sink ships.

Yup

This

Stupid saying

probably

You put yourself in a pickle not reporting it immediately. They will question you why you've known about it for so long.

People die.

No, it doesn't.

2 rules..

Don't rat on your friends and..

Keep your mouth shut.

If you don't report and he get caught they going to ask you why didn't say anything so report him now.

3rd rule: blackmail when possible

Yes, it does.

I'm gonna go get the papers... get the papers.

Im not going into details, but our inventory control is non-existent. Our suppliers will deliver us pallets of our product and we wont even check it, we just sign for it and they leave. They could easily be ripping us off too and we wouldn't even know. The product he's taking is miniscule when only taking a small amount, Ive even been told by my old supervisor to grab some when I needed it and not to worry about it. But this dude is taking it to a whole other level...taking case after case of the most expensive shit everyday. Sometimes so much he has to dolly it out to his car. In a way the company deserves it for being so stupid but its still not right.

I think the way I'm going to go about it is to tell the owner he needs to put a camera in the parking lot and have it recording in the morning. Hopefully that will be enough and he'll get the hint.

No, it doesn't. An accomplice is someone who knowingly and actively aids a criminal. Mere inaction does not make one an accomplice.

Hell, feel free to ask the cops on this board about that. There are very few instances in the criminal code where there is a duty to act.

this is what you guys need....


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chiefs fan too I presume?

Saints and Bucs (long story). Dude is straight from Nawlins, can barely understand anything he says half the time. He's a good guy besides being a thief.

He would probably steal from you if he thought you weren't looking

Heh. Made him look.

Tell him you don't want to, but you will if he doesn't stop.

just start looking for another job. Seriously, you are in a no win situation.

so, write up a proposal to ownership to START TRACKING THE FRIGGEN INVENTORY.

Or GTFO.

I think you just answered your own question. I retired from a company (HUGE company) that had security personnel and cameras EVERYWHERE and, if you were caught, they fired you IMMEDIATELY.

When your supervisor is ignoring theft, what are you going to do? If you still feel it is on you to report this - understand this…usually, this crap will blow back on the person reporting it. Be careful.

Apparently the owner is not concerned with the loss - or he would be more "security" minded.

Easy for me to say, not being in the situation, but I'd report him. It sucks, but he made the poor decision to steal, so he's demonstrated that he doesn't the job that badly.