This is the story of a man named Jed who barely kept his family fed. Actually it is a life story from my early days when I worked at Radio Shack. Kind of boring but if you got some life to waste here it is.
My manager was transferred to another store and I was to follow as soon as a new manager took over. So it was just me and another full timer. Well my fellow employee decided to take an unannounced week long vacation since I was only the manager trainee, what could I do? After he came back I had his final paycheck stapled to a fired form. He was quite shocked and he asked me how I was going to handle this store without him. I told him I had a week to practice. Shortly later I moved to other store with my friend was managing.
I noticed some merchandise hiding under some magazines in the bathroom. I showed the manager and he had a surprised look. Obviously one of the employees was hiding it later to take it. He asked me which of the two other employees I thought it was. I said, it can’t be Adam, he doesn’t fit the type. However Chad definitely has a personality for it. Chad was a part time worker that worked all week as a copier repairman. For some reason he liked working 7 days a week, three weeks out of the month and weeknights randomly. He didn’t like to help out much with store duties just helping a customer once in a while. He had been there for a long time under two previous managers. When it was slow on Sundays he spent a lot of time playing a flight simulator game, he was hooked on it.
As time progressed things disappeared randomly. I knew in my gut it was he doing it. I even could tell which items he took from those that were normally shoplifted. I kept telling my manager he is taking the stuff and after months of it my manager felt I was just picking on him. It was too infrequent and random to catch him easily.
I went on vacation for a week and when I came back Chad and the manager had a story about a robbery that happened. Seems that a blonde guy ran into the store grabbed a display table with mounted camcorders and ran out the door with them. Chad had chased after him but could not catch him. I asked Chad, “Lucky you didn’t get hurt, he could have been dangerous.” I knew Chad was involved in it but I decided to humor it sarcastically. Chad stared at me I think knowing that I was on to him. I asked Chad, “So you couldn’t catch the guy running with a table top full of camcorders? I am also curious how this guy knew to come in grab the one table that was not bolted down yet and make off with it? Almost like he knew what to grab.” Chad replied that the guy was fast and obviously he had staked out the place beforehand. I said; “That is interesting Chad. You didn’t manage to get his license plate since it would have taken him a while to throw the stuff in his vehicle, start it up and leave.” Chad said, “His vehicle was parked on the side of the building and already running.” I responded; “You happen to know his truck was running and parked there but didn’t get a license plate.” Chad just stared at me. I decided then I was going to catch him in the act more than ever. I decided the best method was just irritate him to the point of making a mistake.
Chad also worked some weeknights which he floated as he felt. I noticed he would make sure to not work right after a shipment of inventory came in so he would not have to help put things up. Chad showed up the day after everything was put up as usual. The other employees groaned about this anyway. I grabbed an empty box and handed it to Chad. I had him follow me around as I randomly threw merchandise into it. After it was fairly full I told him that from now on I would decide his workdays in the evenings. I plan to make sure he is there when inventory comes in so he can help us. Now as practice he can put the merchandise in the box up. Of course that infuriated him.
The second thing is I traded Chad’s flight simulator game with a kid’s game from another store. So now he had nothing to play.
I figured he must be taking things on Sunday when it is slow and I am not working. So I traded schedules with another employee. I made sure when he worked, I worked. After a while the subtle things began to wear him down. The ultimate was when a customer found a bag of marijuana on the floor. I figured it belonged to a punk kid that was in there previously but when Chad offered to give me some cash to let him have half of it before the police came to get it, I knew it was his. I told him no and the police did pick it up. Well that set him over the edge. He had a very professional manner to him but I could see the anger fuming in his eyes. I kept making comments the rest of the day about that bag of weed just to keep his blood boiling.
Now it was the end of the workday and the front door was locked. However he was hanging around till I finished counting the money drawer and finished the daily reports. He always took out the trash and I knew he had something in it. I knew he was waiting for me to leave so he could drive around back and grab the trash with the stolen item in it. I kept going back and forth counting the money drawer and the back computer like there was an error in the sales for the day. It gave me the opportunity to look around and see what was missing. Finally Aha! There it was, a power cord to a small new notebook computer sitting by itself on the shelf. No computer though. I had him. I waited him out till he couldn’t take it anymore and he told me he is going home. I locked the front door behind him and as soon as he got in his truck I ran to the back and pulled the trash bags out of the dumpster. After closing the back door and looking out the peep hole sure enough here he come driving to the dumpster. He looked in and then started looking around. He stared up at the back door and knew he was caught. He got in his truck and left for home.
I opened the bag of trash and there was the notebook computer. I called the manager at home and told him what had happened. He apologized for doubting me the whole time and told me to handle it. I realized that technically I did not see him steal it and could not prove it. So I called Chad at home and it was obvious he knew what the call was about. I told him I found a computer in the trash. He gave me a hard luck story about his sister needing an operation. I told him that was admirable Chad, I wouldn’t go to jail for my sister. I guess she has needed this operation for years. I told him I knew about the dope and the camcorders too. He admitted it was his room mate that took the camcorders. I told him that since I am such a good friend, I will let him quit Monday morning. This all will be between me and him. If he doesn’t call Monday morning and tell the manager he quits, then I spill the beans to the company. He promptly called Monday and quit. My manager was smiling the whole time as he got the excuse for his leaving.
The end of the story, not quite. We hired a replacement guy shortly later. This guy lived in the same apartment complex. We were telling him the story of Chad and the guy had a blank look on his face. He told us that he knew of Chad and his room mate. Matter of fact they tried to sell him some camcorders. He even described the room mate perfectly. Then told us about other things they stole. The room mate was a construction worker and had stolen ten $10,000 lasers from his company. These guys were lifting everything they could. A little later I had a knock at my door and it was an FBI agent. She was questioning people that knew Chad more specifically his room mate. Seems the lasers were fairly missed among other things. I told her about the events and what I had heard.
I never knew what happened if anything to them. I guess Chad faired ok because years later I worked for Dell computers and he saw Chad repairing a copier. I did not make myself known to him but mentioned to a manager they might not want that guy here.
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