Tweet
The last few days at the Store, I've been working the front end supervisor shift, which mostly consists of standing at a podium with a clipboard, making sure everyone gets their breaks on time, and dealing with anything that needs supervisor approval. It's brief bursts of intensity followed by long stretches of standing still and waiting for something to happen.
Around 9 PM last night, the customer service clerk called me over to her counter to help with a return. As I got there and she was scanning the items the lady was returning, she gestured to something on our side of the counter - two still photos from our security cameras of the exact same lady that was standing in front of us now. Mr. Wayne (our LP guys) weren't in at the time, so I didn't know what we had the pictures there for, but if they'd bothered to pull them and post them, it definitely means she's been involved in some nefarious goings-on. The clerk gestures under the counter at me for a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on the return. I look at the items she's returning and it's not much, just under $20, everything is sealed and it's all on the receipt she brought back with her, so I provisionally gesture for her to go for it. I approve the return, we put it through, and she takes the cash out of the till and gets ready to give it to the lady.
Just then, before we give her the money, the lady pulls out another receipt and starts putting more stuff on the counter. Now my alarm bells are ringing, as this is nearly $60 worth of merchandise all in all, most of it is non-perishable, non-food items with a high markup that are commonly targeted by organized crime rings such as baby formula, razors, and cosmetics. It's at this point I start scrutinizing the receipts she's given us and notice several more red flags - they're both pretty substantial receipts, they're from three hours apart, both were paid for in cash, and they're both crumpled up and faded.
Who goes shopping, goes home, goes back to the same store a few hours later, shops some more, and then decides two days later to return half the stuff they bought? It comes together in my head - this woman probably fished these receipts out of the trash can by the front door, then went and got the stuff off the shelf, and is trying to scam us out of the cash.
I ask to see her ID. I tell her we need to make a copy of it for our records of the return. (That was a lie - we don't normally do that, but we probably should.) She stammers and says her ID is in the car and walks away. I assume that's the end of it and she's not coming back now that she's realized we're on to her.
She comes back.
The picture on the ID barely looks like her, because meth is a hell of a drug. We have a copy machine in customer service, but I lie and say it's broken and I need to excuse myself to the office to copy it. While I'm in there, I look up her name, both on the Store computer and on my phone. I discover she's been trespassed from one of our other locations for shoplifting and that she has multiple arrests on record in the area.
When I come back I ask her a question about one of the receipts and whether she could describe the "guy" who checked her out. (The cashier in question was female.) She couldn't remember anything about "him", and that was when I told her I was refusing to authorize the return because it looked suspicious. I told her she'd made a number of large returns in recent months (also a lie; I had no idea why we had her pictures on file) and she denied having come to the Store anytime prior to these purchases for like a year or so. I show her the photos we have of her, which date to a few weeks ago, expecting that she'll own up at this point.
She doesn't. She claims that's clearly not her, and that someone broke into her car and stole her ID last month, and has been impersonating her. (Keep in mind; we don't regularly check ID for returns, so this excuse makes no sense.) At this point, an older man who I haven't seen before up to this point emerges from around the corner, as if he's been lurking there and listening in. He says he's her father, and how DARE I accuse her of being a thief, and trying to argue me into doing the return, and tries to lobby the CS clerk into agreeing that the picture doesn't look anything like her. (She stays quiet.)
I tell them I'm not doing the return. They ask to talk to my supervisor. I tell them that I am the person in charge of the store at this time, and they can talk to the store manager tomorrow if they want to complain about it. I give them his info and they leave with the product. (Unfortunately I couldn't prevent them from walking out with the pilfered merch, but the cash we made on the sale is worth more than the cost of the product we lost.) I wrote a detailed note to the store manager about the encounter, attached the copy of her ID and the copies of the receipts she gave us, and went home for the night thinking that would be the end of it since they obviously knew we were on to them.
When I came in today, I found the manager and asked him if he'd heard back from the people I left him the note about. He laughed, shook his head, and said no. He told me he personally refused a return for them once before at another location and that they're known to be return fraudsters. We never had a name or an address until I managed to get a copy of her ID, though.
They came back two hours later, close to the time when I'd told them he'd be leaving for the day, and asked to speak to him by name. I didn't get close enough to listen in on them, but the manager told me that by this time had gone over the security cameras and had a number of photo printouts which he confronted her with - of her selecting the product, both this time and in the past, and of how the purchases she had receipts for were made by two completely different males (who she suddenly claimed were her boyfriend and her brother). He concluded the conversation by saying something along the lines of this; "I have video of your face. I have your ID. I have the license plate on your car. I know where you live. If you steal anything from me ever again, you're going to jail." She sheepishly acknowledged at this point that he had her to rights and left, while continuing to claim that she was the victim of the world's most pathetic case of identity theft.
People try to scam us all the time in this business. Too often, they get away with it. I'm just happy that, with some critical thinking and a little bit of detective work, I was able to catch one in the act, foil their plans, and collect some info that'll make it easier for us to press charges against them in the future.
Bonus WTF
A few hours after this all transpired, I was relating the tale to one of the other supervisors when a pair of young ladies passed us - early to mid 20s, I'd guess. One was pretty tall and dressed in all black, the other one was of typical height and wearing the typical fashion for This Part of the Country, perhaps a little more revealing than I'd recommend considering the weather.
The taller one was leading the shorter one around on a retractable dog leash.
You do your thing, I guess, but that's just not the kind of thing you expect to see in a grocery store.
Around 9 PM last night, the customer service clerk called me over to her counter to help with a return. As I got there and she was scanning the items the lady was returning, she gestured to something on our side of the counter - two still photos from our security cameras of the exact same lady that was standing in front of us now. Mr. Wayne (our LP guys) weren't in at the time, so I didn't know what we had the pictures there for, but if they'd bothered to pull them and post them, it definitely means she's been involved in some nefarious goings-on. The clerk gestures under the counter at me for a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on the return. I look at the items she's returning and it's not much, just under $20, everything is sealed and it's all on the receipt she brought back with her, so I provisionally gesture for her to go for it. I approve the return, we put it through, and she takes the cash out of the till and gets ready to give it to the lady.
Just then, before we give her the money, the lady pulls out another receipt and starts putting more stuff on the counter. Now my alarm bells are ringing, as this is nearly $60 worth of merchandise all in all, most of it is non-perishable, non-food items with a high markup that are commonly targeted by organized crime rings such as baby formula, razors, and cosmetics. It's at this point I start scrutinizing the receipts she's given us and notice several more red flags - they're both pretty substantial receipts, they're from three hours apart, both were paid for in cash, and they're both crumpled up and faded.
Who goes shopping, goes home, goes back to the same store a few hours later, shops some more, and then decides two days later to return half the stuff they bought? It comes together in my head - this woman probably fished these receipts out of the trash can by the front door, then went and got the stuff off the shelf, and is trying to scam us out of the cash.
I ask to see her ID. I tell her we need to make a copy of it for our records of the return. (That was a lie - we don't normally do that, but we probably should.) She stammers and says her ID is in the car and walks away. I assume that's the end of it and she's not coming back now that she's realized we're on to her.
She comes back.
The picture on the ID barely looks like her, because meth is a hell of a drug. We have a copy machine in customer service, but I lie and say it's broken and I need to excuse myself to the office to copy it. While I'm in there, I look up her name, both on the Store computer and on my phone. I discover she's been trespassed from one of our other locations for shoplifting and that she has multiple arrests on record in the area.
When I come back I ask her a question about one of the receipts and whether she could describe the "guy" who checked her out. (The cashier in question was female.) She couldn't remember anything about "him", and that was when I told her I was refusing to authorize the return because it looked suspicious. I told her she'd made a number of large returns in recent months (also a lie; I had no idea why we had her pictures on file) and she denied having come to the Store anytime prior to these purchases for like a year or so. I show her the photos we have of her, which date to a few weeks ago, expecting that she'll own up at this point.
She doesn't. She claims that's clearly not her, and that someone broke into her car and stole her ID last month, and has been impersonating her. (Keep in mind; we don't regularly check ID for returns, so this excuse makes no sense.) At this point, an older man who I haven't seen before up to this point emerges from around the corner, as if he's been lurking there and listening in. He says he's her father, and how DARE I accuse her of being a thief, and trying to argue me into doing the return, and tries to lobby the CS clerk into agreeing that the picture doesn't look anything like her. (She stays quiet.)
I tell them I'm not doing the return. They ask to talk to my supervisor. I tell them that I am the person in charge of the store at this time, and they can talk to the store manager tomorrow if they want to complain about it. I give them his info and they leave with the product. (Unfortunately I couldn't prevent them from walking out with the pilfered merch, but the cash we made on the sale is worth more than the cost of the product we lost.) I wrote a detailed note to the store manager about the encounter, attached the copy of her ID and the copies of the receipts she gave us, and went home for the night thinking that would be the end of it since they obviously knew we were on to them.
When I came in today, I found the manager and asked him if he'd heard back from the people I left him the note about. He laughed, shook his head, and said no. He told me he personally refused a return for them once before at another location and that they're known to be return fraudsters. We never had a name or an address until I managed to get a copy of her ID, though.
They came back two hours later, close to the time when I'd told them he'd be leaving for the day, and asked to speak to him by name. I didn't get close enough to listen in on them, but the manager told me that by this time had gone over the security cameras and had a number of photo printouts which he confronted her with - of her selecting the product, both this time and in the past, and of how the purchases she had receipts for were made by two completely different males (who she suddenly claimed were her boyfriend and her brother). He concluded the conversation by saying something along the lines of this; "I have video of your face. I have your ID. I have the license plate on your car. I know where you live. If you steal anything from me ever again, you're going to jail." She sheepishly acknowledged at this point that he had her to rights and left, while continuing to claim that she was the victim of the world's most pathetic case of identity theft.
People try to scam us all the time in this business. Too often, they get away with it. I'm just happy that, with some critical thinking and a little bit of detective work, I was able to catch one in the act, foil their plans, and collect some info that'll make it easier for us to press charges against them in the future.
Bonus WTF
A few hours after this all transpired, I was relating the tale to one of the other supervisors when a pair of young ladies passed us - early to mid 20s, I'd guess. One was pretty tall and dressed in all black, the other one was of typical height and wearing the typical fashion for This Part of the Country, perhaps a little more revealing than I'd recommend considering the weather.
The taller one was leading the shorter one around on a retractable dog leash.
You do your thing, I guess, but that's just not the kind of thing you expect to see in a grocery store.
Comment