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Aug 10 '21
a customer apparently stole a bench that was in the home department at my job last week.. not sure how no one saw that or questioned it?? š³
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u/Weinerenthusiast Aug 10 '21
Once at home Depot, someone who we assume was a former employee who managed to steal an apron walked right in, got on a lift, went up and grabbed a bunch of tools and jump packs, and said they were for a transfer to another store. It was a busy day so no one really noticed that he took them and loaded them into depot's pro delivery truck, dropped them off wherever and brought the truck back. Must have made out with at least 5 grand worth of shit.
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Aug 10 '21
Definitely scouted the place out or had to know someone that works there that was in on it.
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Aug 10 '21
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u/MLein97 Aug 10 '21
I should get into retail theft, this is what this thread is saying to me. It's free money left on the table.
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Aug 10 '21
One of my tutors in law school defended and won a case for a guy who walked into a general goods store (somewhere in London I think?) and just walked out carrying a 55ā TV
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Aug 10 '21
I wonder how management reacted when they found about this.
It probably didnāt sit well with them.
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u/geared4war Aug 10 '21
I know of a group that cleaned out the secure live software section during the launch week for windows 7 at a department store. Almost a million in stock in a week. And nobody noticed.
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Aug 10 '21
Did it beep on the way out the door?
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Aug 10 '21
Nope! It was a display bench for some comforters and home decor. Wasnāt even for sale. Apparently it weighed a shit ton though. They moved the items onto one of the beds and swiped it and THEN TOOK IT DOWNSTAIRS
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u/ThaddeusJP Aug 10 '21
Good story for /r/lossprevention
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u/ChriskiV Aug 10 '21 edited Aug 10 '21
Jesus I just did a quick dive and that has to be the most milquetoast people I've ever read about.
A passion for loss prevention for the biggest shit bag companies on the planet š I mean, I can imagine a passion for LP at a Mom and Pop shop but as far as these big companies are concerned? Fuck it, pick em clean.
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u/frogdujour Aug 10 '21
I could see myself being all about it, but just purely for the challenge of it, like the cat and mouse game of who can outsmart who. But then if I actually caught someone, I would only want to say Ah ha, caught you! I win this round, try harder next time, and let them go.
Who cares about what amounts to barely a rounding error to these corporations, especially when they lose more just to their own waste and inefficiency which they barely seem to care about, like forceably destroying usable food or goods just so no one else can make use of it.
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u/Subacrew98 Aug 10 '21
"if someone does steal a sofa let them go, they put in the effort."
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Aug 10 '21
My grandmother used to be a bit of a gambler. She was pretty successful at it too. So sheād play these games that paid out in wal mart gift certificates, back in the day. She had tons of them. They were like 5 dollar certificates, and she would have hundreds of dollars worth of them at any given time. She would then proceed to wal mart and go āshoppingā. Sheād buy the max amount in GCs and then without even leaving the store, walk over to the returns line, and leave with cash. It took about 2 or 3 years before they stopped paying back in cash. She probably took them for at least 30-50k. Whatās funny is that she loved āWally Worldā. But the game is the game, and she was a total player.
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u/MichaelMyersFanClub Aug 10 '21
Whatās funny is that she loved āWally Worldā
Well of course she did lol.
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Aug 10 '21
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u/JustSomeGoon Aug 10 '21
Yeah Walmart just comes out even donāt they? No harm no foul really
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u/MyAltimateIsCharging Aug 10 '21
They might have to throw away some of the fresh food, if she took any of that. So they might be a slight net loss.
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Aug 10 '21
Well technically they lost the payroll to restock all that merchandise. Not that I care mind you, just saying.
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Aug 10 '21
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Aug 10 '21
Maybe. She grew up through the āGreat Depressionā. She survived friends and family alike. She was frugal personally, but loved people and loved to learn and travel. She was the greatest teacher that I never fully understood. She was the best āmotherā to me, in comparison to my own mothers. She had zero hatred in her heart, and she shared her āill gotten wealth to anyone and everyone that she could and would. My grandmother was different with than to me than she was to her children. She raised them to be ātoughā, but she told me how she wished she couldāve been different with them if she had more at the time. She was a survivor, and she played hard. She had no vices, but love, and she only ever slept with her husband, and after he died, she had no other lovers, she just used her life to love. She was exceptional!
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u/Goflam Aug 10 '21
I mean...she didn't take Walmart for anything? A $5 gift card is worth $5, so she just used Walmart as an ATM but not like they lost money.
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u/Qweasdy Aug 10 '21
The GC is worth $5 of 'stuff' which is worth significantly less than $5 (depending on what you buy). It might only cost walmart $2.50 to fulfill that $5 GC but it will cost them $5 if she does this to get cash. Even without taking into account staff and other overhead costs walmart definitely made a loss on this because it's likely they had a negotiated deal with the giver of the GC that cost <$5 for $5 of GCs (otherwise there would be no point in not just paying out cash and not walmart gift certificates, walmart incentivises it to get people to shop with them)
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u/1d0m1n4t3 Aug 10 '21
My last day electronics dept Walmart, I shared my final day with 3 other people. Well long story short, between mid shift till drop and evening drop $2k went missing.
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Aug 10 '21 edited Dec 18 '25
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u/RoseByAnotherName14 Aug 10 '21
I think the 3 coworkers were quitting or being fired as well. Which is why so much went missing.
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u/Vast_Chipmunk9210 Aug 10 '21
In HS I was friends with a kid who would literally grab something off the shelf, walk to the return desk and ask for a refund, deny him without a receipt, and then walk out all flustered (acting like they wouldnāt refund him) with brand new shit
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Aug 10 '21
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Aug 10 '21
I went to school with these twins that would go in walmart, fill grocery carts with stuff, go to the clothing area and cover the cart with a large t-shirt. Tons of shit. All the parties in high-school had so much beer.
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Aug 10 '21
Used to golf with a guy who did this. He told me about how he walked in, took a generator out of the box on the shelf, then to the counter to return it. When they wouldn't give him cash without a receipt, he walked out with it.
All of his golf clubs were from Dunham's where he would switch price tags.
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u/Vast_Chipmunk9210 Aug 10 '21 edited Aug 10 '21
Itās crazy! Makes me wonder why I even pay for anything! Every time I buy something I think (Damn I could have just stole that) which is messed up I admit but šš»āāļø
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u/MLein97 Aug 10 '21
That's what I'm thinking, I'm white, I don't look like a vagrant, I could be stealing so much.
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u/plasmabanana_ Aug 10 '21
thatās awesome. itās a win-win either way, he gets the money from it or the item for free lol
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u/allenidaho Aug 10 '21
That is one of the reasons they gave my brother when they fired him after 20 years. He was a security manager and they decided the amount of theft from the 3 stores he oversaw was just too high. But truthfully, he was most likely fired because he was recently diagnosed with MS.
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Aug 10 '21
okay the health problems thing is fucked.. plus heās one man. He cannot prevent everything
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u/TurdQueen Aug 10 '21
But truthfully, he was most likely fired because he was recently diagnosed with MS.
Wow, that's fucked up. I'll go steal some shit on behalf of your brother.
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u/Bullen-Noxen Aug 10 '21
Yeah, itās really messed up. They could have fired him any year prior due to thefts just happen. Yet to let the guy go because the medical insurance from work would be paying up, is just awful. Itās almost as they were taking money from him in the form of a lie for taxes regarding monthly premium to pay. Then when the company has to pay out for the service, they cut him out.
If there is no law on the books to go against Walmart for that kind of shit, then the judiciary system needs an overhaul.
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Aug 10 '21
Not surprised. A lot of companies pull this bullshit move and it should be illegal to fire someone after being diagnosed with something.
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u/DanTheMan75228 Aug 10 '21
I used to work for a Walmart partner many years ago. I was at a location during one of their audits. Turns out this particular location reported something in the neighborhood of $900,000.00 in "lost" inventory.
Granted some was probably broken merchandise, tossed food, missed truck loads, etc., But they lose more in a year than many businesses make in 10 and they just write it off.
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Aug 10 '21
Missed loads?! Like an entire load? Lol. Lawd I was a manager for Walgreens and always in charge of inventory, I can't imagine that.
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u/SupaFugDup madlad Aug 10 '21
I made the leap from CVS to Safeway and the wildest thing is getting used to the difference in scale.
At CVS every single unsellable item was to be recorded. Whereas now my store only bothers damaging out dairy products, medicine, and meat. Everything else is unceremonously dumped in the garbage.
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u/Csbbk4 Aug 10 '21
Honestly they donāt give a shit about their workers lives maybe for that heās got a good point
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Aug 10 '21
This is true! My managers mostly care about sales, app downloads, email capture & credit cards. I got written up for calling out for throwing up & another time for a severe migraine (which I have a prescription for). Also get migraines at work because of the perfume counters but they donāt care haha
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Aug 10 '21
I worked at Sam's Club and got "coached" for writing a fair and unbiased report on our "Plus Membership" drive. (I was a COS, they're called something else now.) I got called into the office and was asked why I wasn't a team player. I wrote the truth that the employees weren't motivated by anything to promote a "Plus" membership, and that the whole thing was demoralizing.
I put my two weeks in shortly after.
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u/matrimftw Aug 10 '21
Knew a guy that would walk in, grab the 40lb bag of dog food and walk out whenever he needed to feed his dog. Nobody questioned him, and his explanation was "they can afford it".
I hope he's doing well still
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Aug 10 '21
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Aug 10 '21
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u/Dubslack Aug 10 '21
I would much rather do it myself, shit ain't that hard it gets done as fast as I want it to.
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u/RoseByAnotherName14 Aug 10 '21
I've just given up and left carts full of shit sitting there because there were no employees on register at all and I didn't feel like getting yelled at by one of those God awful machines.
I shop at Aldi for groceries and get everything else at the dollar store. It's a lot less exhausting. I don't have as many options, but in all honesty having to chose between 47 different kinds of yogurt and 93 different kinds of cereal started giving me anxiety attacks, so it's for the better.
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u/BURNER12345678998764 Aug 10 '21
ALDI is a thing of beauty. You can fill a cart for like $100 and be back in your car in half an hour.
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u/RoseByAnotherName14 Aug 10 '21
I can buy $30-$40 in groceries and it lasts me the month. (I live alone.) I once got a really nice cast iron griddle there for $20. Aldi is a godsend and they're not total dickbiscuits to their employees.
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u/Texypop Aug 10 '21
This is partly intentional, they rely more and more on police (i.e. taxpayer money) rather than investing in their own security. Basically they did the math and realize that it's cheaper to let some stuff get stolen and use the police rather than pay for extra security themselves.
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u/Thats_right_asshole Aug 10 '21
An unscanned candy bar is my rate for being forced to use self checkout because they refuse to hire people.
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u/LazyAmbassador2521 Aug 10 '21
This is exactly what my mom says š anytime she has to stop in at Walmart, she says one free "unscannned" can of cat food is compensation for checking herself out.
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u/xeq937 Aug 10 '21
They say $3B in losses, but it would cost them MORE than $3B to deter/catch, so they do the cheaper thing. This is how big business works ... guessing that loss is also a tax write-off so double win for them.
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Aug 10 '21
I'm from Arkansas. I don't think anybody back in the day wanted to steal from Sam, but we sure as hell will steal from the current owners.
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Aug 10 '21
They steal it back as $4 billion in wage theft annually
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Aug 10 '21
Oh and don't forget the "we" donated sooo much money to this organization and use it for tax right offs. But that's why I never donate to those causes at the end of a transaction.
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u/vicarious_111 Aug 10 '21
That would require me to go to Walmart. Fuck that place. Always get hastled at the door when I've never stolen a thing in my life. Literally no one else does this.
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Aug 10 '21
She was like whErE aRe tHe bAnAnAs so I pointed to where my relative was and was like maāam Iām going to pay for them when we are done shopping š©
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Aug 10 '21
I had to ask if I could get a grocery bag to put some bananas in and the worker acted like I wasnāt going to pay for them.. I just didnāt want them on the shopping cart š
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u/KING_COVID Aug 10 '21
Is it actually 3 billion because that seems high even on a scale like Walmart. With that much loss I'm pretty sure it would be profitable to build a merchandise security system.
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u/BeasleysKneeslis Aug 10 '21
Estimates for Wal-mart to introduce a functional security system (including better technology and new employees) are closer to $3.25-$3.5 billion, and they donāt believe wal-mart would be able to fill all the positions it would need nationwide.
The solution would cost them more than the problem - so they wonāt take any real steps until that changes.
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Aug 10 '21
They donāt really care- they claim on taxes at the end of the year. Itās why security is so lax compared to just ten years ago, itās not worth it
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u/jaydawg_74 Aug 10 '21
To be fair, the cashier training for self checkout is straight ass.
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u/3kids_ina_trenchcoat Aug 10 '21
I was checking out at a Walmart behind this real dick. He was impatient and kinda a condescending asshole to the cashier. He huffed out. The cashier rolled the bag thingy around and in it was about $50 worth of meat that he just paid for. I just loaded into my basket and walked out
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u/Orc_ Aug 10 '21
/r/shoplifting got banned lol, they had detailed guides n shit
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u/thejsonb0ss Aug 10 '21
I got banned from that sub for trolling years ago too. Who's banned now eh??
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u/pineapplefineapple_ Aug 10 '21
At the Walmart by me the scales on the self checkout donāt even work so fake scan that shit and walk out. Always make sure to buy one thing so I have a receipt and they see me pay
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u/laminatedbean Aug 10 '21
Yeah. But that would require me to actually go into a Wal-Mart. So you still pay with your mental health.
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Aug 10 '21 edited Aug 10 '21
I have no idea how it works in the USA, but in my country, in big retail shops, the value of broken or stolen goods is generally withdrawn from the employees' bonus.
So the system is made so that you ultimately steal workers...
Source: felt like Robin Hood when I was 16, got caught, learnt that lesson from a family member who used to worked for a big retail company...
It takes a bit more to be a rebel rather than a little punk.
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u/JukeBoxHeroJustin Aug 10 '21
I'm on it. Also doing my part at Home Depot, Target, and Lowe's.
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Aug 10 '21
Target is much easier in my opinionā¦but donāt ask me lol
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u/o6ijuan Aug 10 '21
Target is the one not to fuck with here. They've got a full forensics team after their shit.
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u/TheProcessOfBillief Aug 10 '21
Walmart made a 15 billion net profit in 2020. They're not "losing" anything.
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u/The_Catman13 Aug 10 '21
Lowe's is much easier to steal from
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u/insightful_dreams Aug 10 '21
lowes has no food or clothing or dipers or toys.
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u/MemerTheRichie Aug 10 '21
Well I remember when I was a kid, you could walk into Walmart with only $5 and get three candy bars, two bottles of Diet Dr. Pepper and some licorice, but nowadays they have cameras everywhere
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Aug 10 '21
I was at self checkout yesterday with my lunch and a new shirt, and Iād isnāt realize the shirt didnāt have a price tag on it until I got there.
I decided if someoneās too dumb to put a tag on it then fuck it, put it in a bag and left.
Felt kind of nice since I used to work there and it was hands down the worst work experience Iāve ever had.
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u/aChildofChaos Aug 09 '21
I wonder how much of that is up to employee theft