How to catch a cash thief

[humphreybumphrey]

Suggestions please on:

Early detection measures.

Systems used by cash register thiefs.

Etc.

NB: Have good CCTV cover, however, it's only useful after theft has been reported and is not effective in the dicovery of theft.

Thanks in advance.

[123everton]

You mean staff?
How about smart water?

[sara3]

I don't see what is wrong with CCTV. why would that not discover the theft?

[sara3]

NK, don't you have homework to finish?

[humphreybumphrey]

123everton - Yes, it's staff. RE Smart Water - the money cannot be marked coming into the till as it comes from customer.

sara3 - We are open long hours and it's not possible to review all of the footage captured. You would need an incling of who was theiving and roughly when.

Thanks.

[sara3]

if I thought someone was stealing my money I'd watch 24 hours of CCTV.. or pay someone to do it.

can you not allocate different tills to different staff?

[tamborine]

Install fresh cash till for each shift and check income against receipts by each user.

[dothawkes31]

that's what I was going to suggest tamborine, as a deterant rather than a detection method, as once the staff understand that they are all being monitored and audited then the problem should cease. Do you also have till chaches for excess 10s and all 20s? This avoids too many notes in the till.

[humphreybumphrey]

sara3 - I have tried to review CCTV this way and quickly discovered that even watching an 8 hour shift can become a 12 excursion as you tend to rewind a lot. Difficult to keep your eyes open too. Moreover, we can have more than 100 hours of footage per week. Trust me it's not possible! And paying someone would most likely cost more than the money we're losing through theft.

All staff have to move between different tills unfortunately.

[dothawkes31]

it also depends what size of store you have and the till training, all transactions should be put through the till and a reciept issued. None of the staff should have personal possessions on the shop floor and there should be bag searches done daily, which need to be recorded and signed for by staff and managers. Any member of staff bringing large amounts of miney into the store must declare it in a book but it should be discouraged. All staff should allow locker searches and bag searches, searches can also include asking staff to remove their footwear as they leave the shop floor. No persobal possessions should be allowed on the shop floor including glasses cases and mobile phones.

[humphreybumphrey]

dothawkes31 - Yes we have counter cache boxes and some other measures that could probably be used to better effect.

However, I'd really like an insight into the (counting) systems a thief might use.

[danchip]

obviously you know that money is going missing, so you will know when it is going missing, check your rota's see if there are specific staff on everytime it happens, if there is then you can narrow down times when you need to check the CCTV

Also first thing fill the tills with money you have marked, take another amount of notes, mark them and get friends/family or other people you can trust to go and buy items from the store, due to this nearly all of the cash in your till will be marked and you can check your staff as they leave

[humphreybumphrey]

Thank you for your response danchip.

Yes, I am aware of money being taken in this case and I have thus been going through CCTV footage - in fact, since I posted this question I have found footage that will be used to sack and hopefully prosecute one offender :)

However, there are more suspected thieves and I am finding it very difficult to prove them guilty or innocent as the case may be.

This is why I am particularly interested in systems/tricks used by thieves. If I know what to look for; I'll find it more quickly.

I like the suggestion you made about marking notes... more of that kind of stuff please.