Alright, as you know I manage a Motel. The other night When I was doing the books I was short about $823.00...It was gone from the safe. There are only 3 suspects. I have a feeling I know who did it, but I don't know for sure.
I know how I would handle this, but I want to handle this in a way to secure a conviction.
I had to replace that money for now out of my own pocket so corporate offices won't step in yet.
Can anybody help me out? If it's who I think it is, this wouldn't be the first time I've come up short. I just don't want to accuse someone until I'm positive.

Ron, why did you take care of it yourself?? That's what 'corporate' offices are for. It was not your job to replace that money unless you took it. It will look like you are covering up something. You need to tell your boss, now. Let them take care of it, that's what they get paid for.

I don't know pup. I'm still new to this responsibility. I've never been management before. I just didn't want to look like I lost control of my team.

I think you should tell corporate what you just told us, with the exception of who you think stole it. Wait til they ask you if you think you know who stole it, then tell them who you think. You can't accuse someone without proof.

Ron, I think you should look at it from the other guy's viewpoint, the guy who took the money. Maybe he feels that the big bosses "make too much money as it is ya know" and hey, "it's free" money.
For those that doen't recognize the quotes, they are Ron's from the thread about stealing music by downloading. Ironic, isn't it.

Corporate likely has some loss prevention people. Reporting the theft immediately when it happened may have been your best course of action. Seek their experienced advice for a solution - and hey, I know, one of the risks now is to your job. If you followed procedure you will be in a better position.

Good luck getting your $$$ back. You can't very well go in and "take it" without it looking like you're the thief.

Surely there are control procedures when the safe is open. Do you have any video cameras?

Ron, the same thing happened where I work. they had me install a new "Smoke Detector" (read video camera).

It took awhaile but when he thought the dust had settled, he stuck again. This was with 10 possibilities.

If you only had three and it wasn't you then your down to two. I would confront the two of them and give them a chance to return the money, no questions asked, before they get in hotter water.

Of course you would have to let the culprit go. Just be sure your right.

I took care of it. I knew who did it. So yesterday, after I did the books and counted everything for the deposit. I put all of it in one of those bank deposit sleeves with the locks. "I just didn't lock it all the way."
Put it in the safe, but didn't shut it all the way.
Needless to say greed was the end of the line for the girl.
I took WoW's advice and brought my own video camera in and just put it on a shelf full of books in my office.
Went to the bathroom which is like 10 feet away, when I heard my office door open, the maintanence man took a look around the corner, tapped on the bathroom door. I came out shut the office door and locked it. Called the cops.
She had like 200 bucks on her.

She denied it like I thought. The video tape is going to secure the charge.

Thanks for the help everybody especially you WoW. If you didn't bring up the camera thing this would have never worked and this could have gone on forever....



Hey DG. I still stand by my music statement. They do make too much money 25 bucks for a CD is ridiculous. So os 45 bucks for a T-shirt of your favorite band, and 100 bucks for concert tickets.....

Ron, I hope it wasn't a customer you gave "special privledges to" as discussed in an previous post. See what can happen when you keep less than honest standards? What goes around, comes around, buddy!

Ron, I can't believe she tried it so soon. Talk about greedy. Some of these people are so dumb that they think you never notice the loss.

Hint, next time you put out bait, be sure to record the bill serial numbers.

Glad to know you can sleep nights now.

Sailracer. I see where you're going with this.
I agree with you completely. I got away with what I did long enough to fool "The Man", put a couple bucks in my pocket, help a couple lowly maids, and still bring up profits.
Even though what I felt was right was still wrong, hell, now I know how it feels.
What goes around does come around.
I'm just glad I'm all Honest Abe now.


WoW, the theft from the safe was the tip of the iceberg. I, along with the 6am to 2pm shift worker kept noticing that people checking out of rooms were being charged the AARP rates. as you know AARP is for senior citizens.
These people were in their too young.
So I suspected she charged full price, put the AARP rate on the computer and kept the diffrence.

Ron, now how would I know that AARP is for senior citizens. LOL Been using their card for years to get the discounts. In Ohio, we have a "Golden Buckeye" card issued by the state at 60.

Did you know that you don't have to be a senior citizen to get a AARP card. No proof of age is required.

Seeing that the 10% is built in to the room rate just so they can give the discount, I felt no shame in taking it before I became a senior citizen.

Now on to a business note. Be sure to write up a report on the who, what and where of this incident. Even if you just keep it in your files. You never know when it could come back to haunt you.

Ron, what you supposedly did in setting up the camera and leaving the safe open is called "entrapment" and all that girl would need to beat any charges would be a copy of this post! And be careful of that camera, it might just catch the person who put it there.

Steve, there is a small chance that if Ron were a cop, the girl might successfully cry "Entrapment", but as a private citizen, he's not legally bound to proper procedures regarding 4th or 5th Amendment rights against unreasonable search or self incrimination....If I saw an open safe at work, I would immediately notify my supervisor of the security issue,not help myself to a portion of its contents.

quote:

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Originally posted by MrsS:
Steve, there is a small chance that if Ron were a cop, the girl might successfully cry "Entrapment", but as a private citizen, he's not legally bound to proper procedures regarding 4th or 5th Amendment rights against unreasonable search or self incrimination....If I saw an open safe at work, I would immediately notify my supervisor of the security issue,not help myself to a portion of its contents.

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Funny....I saw a case where relatives put a hidden camera in a nursing home and caugth the attendant beating thier mother and the tape was not admissable. So I guess private citizens are allowed to plant hidden cameras in bathrooms also?

Whether or not such a tape is admissable as evidence is not the same thing as calling it entrapment...entrapment means that someone in law enforcement, or acting on behalf of law enforcement, has willfully goaded, enticed or encouraged another into commiting a criminal act that they were not previously disposed to commit...Surely you do not figure the malicious nursing home employee was entrapped?....I would imagine that the nursing home case hinged on the placement of the camera by a citizen without the permission of the management...Sad to say, even though your own mother might be lodged there, a private citizen does not have the right to "bug" the property of another....I am not at all inclined to do so, but I CAN put cameras in my own home anywhere I like, and my boss is free to put cameras in my workplace, because that is property over which she has "right of control".
Exact law varies by jurisdiction.

I beg to differ. If there is in fact a camera recording a work area, and a manager admits to leaving the safe open with an open deposit bag inside, I say entrapment. Any innocent employee may pass an open safe and remove the contents for safekeeping and bring them to management. Not that that is the right thing to do but because they are caaught on camera certainly does of itself prove guilt. If a manager wanted to get rid of someone they might very well set up that scenario. Voila: ENTRAPMENT!

so i accidently left a video camera on in my office. It was very "careless of me to not lock the money bag all the way." Oops....
In my rush to answer the phone i didn't lock the safe up. oops again...
Besides steve-o, if you read my earlier post buddy, the maintanence man signaled me, I came out the bathroom and locked her in. Open and shut case.
I got a witness. Besides it's no big deal anyway. All they did was fire her. They dropped the charges, but she is being prosecuted for a prior theft warrant and a violation of probation.

Cameras can tell a story that is not all that true. Isn't that what most movies are? I remember when I was in the seventh grade. There was a florist on 76th Street on Lexington Avenue in New York. My school was just down the block and that is where I used to catch the subway. Anyway, two schoolmates and I were going home when we passed this florist. A man was standing in the doorway and stopped us asking us for help. He said he had received a package in the mail and didn't know what the contents were. We looked at it and couldn't decide. It was some crazy kind of thing with lights and we couldn't find a way to open it. All of a sudden, one of the guys I was with hollered "We're on camera!" (This guy was the son of a movie producer and was used to movie set ups.) It turned out that we were indeed on "Candid Camera." The point I am making is that we were on Candid Camera but we never made TV. I think they caught exactly what they wanted until our discovery of the camera. Then because the shoot got ruined they had a little conference and asked us to do it again. I was too shy to knowingly act for a camera and we all backed out. If we had done it again, it would have been on TV and those watching would believe that it was candid.