Almost got away with it!

Almost got away with it!

Theft is an extremely common occurence in small moving businesses. However, it is rare when you have theft to this degree at your Moving Company. The following is a true story about an employee, who we will call Scott, and all of the shadey things that he did to a local independent moving company.

Back in the summer of 2011, Scott was working jobs at the height of the busy season. Sometimes Scott did over $1500 in jobs a day and did a ton of out of state moves. Scott would bounce from crew to crew in the evening to assist and even volunteer his sundays. His paychecks would reflect close to 60 hour weeks, every week and with overtime, when Scott got his check on Wednesday, he was not disappointed.

One busy wednesday in the middle of July, moves were scheduled an hour back to hold a manditory crew, crew foreman and driver meeting. The meeting discussed two things. Theft and Carelessness. Because the managers had no proof whether or not supplies and equipment were being left on the job site or stolen, both were mentioned. Everyone in the room discerned the message, gossiped about it, but moves and life continued on normally.

More supplies and equipment would come up missing weekly. With how busy the time was, the managers were forced to restock and continue on with out further investigation. One day, a customer called in, claiming that they had forgotten to tip Scott and another crew member on a job and wanted to send it to the movers. Asking for her first and last name, they searched the whole system but were unable to find the job as scheduled.

The same day, a customer called in and complained about Scott. She claimed that he had told her that the Company was charging her too much money and that he had a crew and could do the job for a fraction of the cost. Scott was questioned by the owner of the moving company as he got back from his last job and was fired on the spot.

As the season slowed a bit, nearly 80 pads, 4 dollies and four wheelers and 10 straps were missing. After reasearch, the supplies came up missing 75% of the time on crews that Scott was on. The manager called the police and had them visit Scott at his front door. Scott was not home, but 2 unmarked moving trucks were parked in his driveway.

After getting a search warrant under reasonable suspicion, the police searched the trucks and found that most of the supplies and equipment had been stolen from the Moving Company. After convenscating the supplies and withholding Scotts last 2 weeks worth of paychecks, Scott realized that he almost got away with it, but inevitably was caught red-handed.

This story is meant to help you keep an eye out for suspicious activity at your Moving Company and to help you prepare to take drastic measures if need be, in order to protect your company.