The Crime: A former Burger King manager admitted to authorities that she stole about $2,000 from the quick-serve restaurant after Selma, Alabama, police were called into investigate the loss of four bank deposits. The deposits were the manager’s responsibility, totally about $12,000, but she said she lost them. She was hired at a Montgomery Burger King less than two weeks after being fired from the chain’s Selma location.
According to the Director of the University of Missouri’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Mary Paulsell, small businesses lose about $40 billion each year to their employees’ thievery. Perhaps even more disturbing is Paulsell’s figure in her article “The Problem of Employee Theft” that about 75 percent of all employee theft goes unnoticed.
Pyburn, counsel for the Louisiana Restaurant Association, says going to the police will reduce the chances of being counter sued by the employee for slander.
“If you just go to the police and say, ‘Here’s the evidence I have’ and let the police and the district attorney decide whether or not to prosecute,” he says “There’s little risk of being caught up in a lawsuit over that.”
But Pyburn warns that theft prevention is the best strategy for avoiding a trial which could cost in the ballpark of $50,000.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” he says. “In this case probably 10 pounds of cure.”
Editor of LossPrevention magazine Jack Trlica says employers should encourage employees to report questionable activities. “Companies should implement ongoing, consistent communications that promote honesty and set the expectation that honesty in the workplace is important to the safety and success of the entire employee team.”
Even though many fast-food employees are minors, Pyburn says employers should follow adult legal action when an issue arises. “Depending on the jurisdiction they’ll take it seriously or less seriously,” he says. “But theft is wrong, and it’s a crime no matter how old the person is.”
The Crime: Most quick-serves look at their drive-thru windows as a source of revenue, not a liability. That might change in Omaha, Nebraska, where one local fast-food restaurant was the victim of an unusual burglary. A woman wearing a ski mask and carrying a shotgun forced her way in through the window around 4:15 one morning and made an employee lead her to the store’s cash.
Visbal says the most important factor in securing a location and preventing burglaries is the surrounding neighborhood. He says this can affect the number of cameras needed and quickly increase the cost of having a customized security system. Drive-thrus are especially difficult areas to secure with cameras due to lighting issues, according to Visbal.
“The International Association of Chiefs of Police is actually coming out with recommendations for in-car video systems and a lot of that is the first time that’s ever been done,” he says.
According to the most recent Scientific Working Group on Imaging Technology (swgit) recommendations, drive-thrus should have a minimum of 110 Lux (or 10 foot candles) of illumination 24 hours a day.
Lighting is integral to security systems because camera footage evidence can be useless in a court of law if a lack of lighting makes the culprit unidentifiable.
“How do you quantify what a picture that is ‘good enough’ for a court of law is?” Visbal asks.
In order to secure drive-thrus, he also suggests installing a bulletproof window if the location has a reputation for criminal activity. “If the area is iffy and you want to secure your personnel and your money, that’s when you look into a bulletproof transaction window so that if somebody pulls a gun out I don’t care because I’m behind bullet proof glass,” he says.