Quick Change Artist Got How Much? O.o

[Ghel]

Yesterday, one of the tellers at the main branch emailed everyone to help her discover a shortage on her drawer. She asked everyone to look at savings books and such as customers came in to the branches, since she was short $1,650. I imagine she thought she'd given a customer cash and forgotten to write up the withdrawal slip.

Today, a manager emailed everyone a crime alert for a pair of quick change artists that have been hitting area businesses. Our branch manager explained that the teller's short drawer was because of the woman of the pair.

This confuses me so much. I could see losing up to $100 from a quick change artist if you didn't re-count the money they wanted to exchange, but $1,650?

[eltf177]

How exactly do they think this happened?

[Sulhythal]

Sounds more like someone found about the quick change artist and decided it'd make a good excuse...

[Deserted]

My thoughts exactly.

My mother spent a short time as a bank teller, and any shortage -- ANY SHORTAGE FOR ANY REASON -- was taken out of her paycheck. For that matter, I suppose she would have been penalized (somehow) for an overage as well.

In my teens, mom owned a small store. At least once that I know of, we were hit by a quick change artist. That sucked, but the drawer was only down something like $20.

[Rosco the Iroc]

When Jiffy Lube goes bad.

[Ghel]

I didn't get all the details, but I might hear more Tuesday. The crime alert had pictures attached, so I assume the teller recognized the woman.

[dendawg]

My mother spent a short time as a bank teller, and any shortage -- ANY SHORTAGE FOR ANY REASON -- was taken out of her paycheck.

I personally would've told them to come back with a court order or they could go fuck themselves.

[Deserted]

Well, on the one hand, it was in the late 60's.

On the other hand, it's a bank. I'm kind of on their side about this. (Although I rather doubt they would have made her pay back a robbery, pretty much any other reason would likely have boiled down to "it's the teller's fault" in one way or another.) You're a bank teller, your job is to make sure exact amounts go from point A to point B.

I know sometimes the cash drawer doesn't balance out at the end of the night -- mine was off by $18 at the C-store once, because I derp'ed a transaction and the customer didn't bother correcting me. I volunteered to fix it out of my pay, but my manager told me not to worry about it... but also not to do it again.

For that matter, when I go in to the yard to get paid, I make sure the amount they tell me is within $1 of what I'm expecting. If it's not, the cashiers know we're going to be playing "find Deserted's money" for a while -- especially if they're overpaying me, because I want to know where that extra came from, so I don't have to pay back something given to me in error. (I do my logging in Excel. My spreadsheets tell me exactly how much I should be getting from the cash office.)

[Shyla]

That quick change artist is really good at her scam.

I don't think shortages should ever come out of your paycheck. If you screwed up, you can be disciplined or fired but you need to be paid for your hours. If you stole it, they can bring charges. And small shortages of course can happen so everyone should move on.

[Argus]

I could see losing up to $100 from a quick change artist if you didn't re-count the money they wanted to exchange, but $1,650?

Apparently, there's a video that shows a quick-change artist completely emptying a cash register that way. If they keep going back and forth, the effect is like a ratchet wrench.

[Ghel]

I got more of the story this morning. It seems the woman came in with a stack of $50s and asked to exchange them for different bills. The teller took the cash to the counting machine, and it was the correct amount. The teller went back to the woman and the woman said she wanted Canadian bills. But we don't carry Canadian money. After that, the teller's not sure what happened, other than the woman changed her mind several times about what sort of bills she wanted.

The woman must have been really good at her scam.

[Gerrinson]

My one and only experience with a quick change artist happened when I was new at Ye Olde Grocery Shoppe - 18 years old, first job not working for the family.

Dude must have run through 20 or so iterations of what he wanted back, with me stopping every time to tell him I couldn't give that back because it didn't match up. Eventually, he took exact change and moved on.

The CSM pulled and counted my drawer, after explaining the scam to me - I didn't even know it existed back then, I thought the guy just sucked at math. My drawer was perfect to the penny.

Apparently, there was a group going around locally hitting the newest cashiers on the assumption that the newbies would just fold. Sadly, he picked me - the guy that used to do calculus and theoretical physics problems in my head while ringing out people's groceries. Sucker!

[Dreamstalker]

I got a quick-change scam pulled on me when I was a newbie...buddy starting asking to change bills after I had counted his change out from a transaction. I got wise to the game almost instantly but Shithead instructed me to do it (he had no idea what was really going on). I was my usual methodical self. People could see the scammer was getting impatient, but he couldn't complain about my being slow without giving away what he was actually doing.

After the quick-change artist had left the building, the CDH counted my drawer (which I knew was going to happen)...I was over by a good bit. I think the scammer lost track of what they gave me. For awhile I was a bit famous as the cashier who managed to scam a scammer

[eltf177]

This really stinks, hope you can catch this vermin...

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Yesterday, one of the tellers at the main branch emailed everyone to help her discover a shortage on her drawer. She asked everyone to look at savings books and such as customers came in to the branches, since she was short $1,650. I imagine she thought she'd given a customer cash and forgotten to write up the withdrawal slip.

Today, a manager emailed everyone a crime alert for a pair of quick change artists that have been hitting area businesses. Our branch manager explained that the teller's short drawer was because of the woman of the pair.

/eyebrow raises

There's at least one quick-change scammer criss-crossing the Immoral Fairyland. She goes from one end of the state to the other and back again trying this scam at various stores. She buys something small, pays with a large bill, and then tries to get the cashier to exchange bills for other ones. She showed up at the swamp recently but left unsuccessful. However she did hit a Walmart near us for nearly two grand.

She's been caught on camera with a guy, but apparently visited my store alone.

If you are still where you indicate you are, there's a chance this may be the same person.