Employee charged with falsifying returns

A Port Charlotte Advance Auto Parts employee was charged Friday with grand theft for allegedly falsifying more than $2,200 in return receipts. via North Port Sun

[Patrick Murphy]

20 bogus returns for $2200 because the employee says he spotted a weakness in the system and his manager would not listen to him about it.

Employees can justify stealing in an incredible number of ways but they always want to stop short of just saying they are thieves. This employee was 45 and probably has a lot of experience in retail. Why would a 45 year old man be a supervisor at a retail store making less than (I'm guessing)$35,000 a year.

Who monitors refund activity? What reports can be generated to detect abnormal activity? Systems can be beat. Monitoring the methods of theft helps keep things in check.
Pat Murphy
LPT Security Consulting

[ODJ]

Well there is really no way of telling if a return is abnormal or not. The employees can always find a way to beat the return system but management can never make sure its in check because they have to watch each and every return. I've worked retail for years and eventually thoses guys get caught when you see about 6 PS3's and 360's missing. You cannot tell is the employee really returned it or not and there may never be a way until the employee gets too greedy.