2008-11-17 ... 10:49 p.m.

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More stealing at work

After reading my buddy Yankee Chick this morning I had to laugh. As a fellow cashier, she is running into a lot of the same things I do, although she works more with food, which means there are way more women in her store. The nastiest customers are often women.

Her entry also reminded me of a few things I should have posted yesterday. One of those things is a store policy that states that any item(s) marked down have to be left for customers to buy for at least 2 days before an employee is allowed to buy them. So the guy who bought the marked down bags of bark should have had them marked down, and left them for two days before he bought them. Policy violation here! I thought of that while he was off getting the markdown SKU on them, but decided to just stay out of it. I�m kind of glad now that I did, since he just hung himself with it, and I wasn�t on that platform with him.

The other thing it reminded me of was the Santa hat incident. There were a group of young guys in the store with one girl. They had to be in their early twenties and they were buying plants. As usual, in a group like that, there�s always one goofy one, who is the clown of the group. (We all know who the clown in the Javelina group was!) Anyway, he was wearing this Santa hat that is being sold in the inside garden area. It even had a tag on it�. About 10 minutes later, the group came to my register to check out. The guy was still wearing the hat, but now it had NO TAG!! So before they all walked out the door, I asked him about the hat, was he going to pay for it? He said, �No, it�s yours.� Took it off, and left. Had I not asked him about it, he would have walked out with it on, and had his hat for free. Heh. Norma happened by just then so I told her about it. Doesn�t hurt to let the boss know you are watching�.

Today was an interesting day. Not only did Jason catch a counterfeit $100 bill, but a guy came to my register with a $250 tool and wanted to buy 2 $350 gift cards. The Depot of Home allows customers who forget their cards to "look them up" on our computer. We need their social security number and a driver's license. May just happened to be walking by, and I checked with her on the two gift cards. The reason I checked was because I have been told that multiple high value gift cards are things that thieves will buy with stolen credit cards, because they can't be traced.

So she took his driver's license, put it under the blacklight which shows the holograms built into the California license, and discovered it was fake. Heh. The security guy came over, and the customer RAN out of the store, leaving his ID and all the products. Heh.

I also believe that the garden guy who stole the bags of mulch yesterday has been fired. Carol didn't really know, but I was back in the break room when one of the managers was talking about someone "cleaning out their locker" and I am pretty sure his was in that area. I'll find out for sure later in the week.

I closed the store tonight. Usually we are sent home a half hour or so early, but tonight Norma was closing, and we were encouraged to find things to do so we could stay until the scheduled time of 10. I was glad of that, because the more often I leave early, the less hours I have to be paid for.

There are conflicting reports about our cashier. One person said he wasn't doing well, Norma went last night and talked to his mother, who said they were optimistic. His brain stem is undamaged, so they have hope that whatever he loses as far as function, he will be able to recover. No one will really know anything until he wakes up. One of the other cashiers is working up a website to collect donations. Anything she can raise will be matched by the Depot of Home corporation. More than a week in ICU has got to be pretty expensive!

I'm beat. Time for something quick to eat and then bed. I'm sure not used to staying up this late!

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Kiss Me!

12 comments so far

Shear - 2008-11-18 12:06:52
Go Beanie! Look at you catching all those thieves! So exciting!
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Sherry - 2008-11-18 12:13:22
Man...talk about never having a dull moment!!
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DSis - 2008-11-18 12:28:06
For your coworker, check out http://www.caringbridge.org/ -- it is a free web site for people who are ill and their families/friends. Family can post the patient's progress, and others can send messages of support. Pretty neat way to squelch the rumors and keep in contact with those who care. It might be a place to also mention your collection for his family.
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l\'empress - 2008-11-18 13:50:39
That's our girl! She always did like "New Detectives." ;-)
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yankeechick - 2008-11-18 13:57:25
We are good! I thwarted (neener) 2 thefts yesterday! One lady was buying a couple of very large items that I had to use my hand scanner on, but she was careful to lift them just right so I could reach them. I saw some other things, but when she asked for her total I asked her if those items were a separate order....her face turned beet red, mumbled that she forgot and gave me the items (about $100 worth of video games). Then I had a lady come through with her little girl. The girl was carrying a pretty little beaded purse (with tags dangling :)). I even commented on how pretty her purse was. The girl put it on the counter for me to admire. I checked out the other things the lady had and she handed the purse back to her little girl while I was doing it. She then proceeded to hand me some cash to pay for the total thus far. I asked about the purse. She said it was her daughters. I said, but there are tags on it so I was curious and the little girl pipped up and said "Oh, Mommy can I keep it?!" Busted!! $20.00 purse about to walk out the door! Imagine how many of those things we don't catch!
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Poolie - 2008-11-18 14:57:02
Is your last name Drew? And....you were talking about Terri T, right?
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beanie - 2008-11-18 16:49:24
Riiiiiiight Poolie... Terri T. uh huh. sure.
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Shippie - 2008-11-18 17:34:22
You go! I think poolies right..your last name is Drew! I read so many stories about your adventures growing up. How come you never told us this before???
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Terri T. - 2008-11-18 19:24:02
I am not the one who OWNS the clown shoes and takes them on road trips so I am certain that I was not the clown in Tombstone.....LOL so how's our little chubby bunny face today?
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terri t - 2008-11-18 19:26:17
I got so confused there for a second, I forgot to comment on YOUR blog. Congrats on catching the little sneak who was trying to get the Santa hat for free. And good catch on the gift cards and driver's license....
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requiel - 2008-11-18 22:53:25
You are so awesome, I would be so nervous to even ask. You rock.
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boxx9000 - 2008-11-19 00:15:00
My husband was a manager for Depot of Home for many years (now he's at Lowe's) The stories he has told me about employee thefts and the scams customers run could fill a book! Some people have absolutely NO morals. My daughter told me working as a bartender was the absolute worse for rude customers because they were all drunks. The worse customer (for rudeness) she ever had was when she worked for See's candies and she waited on Joe Montana's (ex 49er football player) wife and she barked orders and treated her like a servant.
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