Theft Investigations

The term Theft Investigations, as you might have guessed, covers a huge category as well as many possible scenarios. We get inquiries about many theft related issues. In this instance we are only going to touch upon a few because there are simply too many possibilities and not enough time. The methods used to resolve the matters may vary but the basic questions always remain the same. Listed below are some of the more common inquiries that we receive:

• Theft of money
• Theft of physical property
• Theft of inventory
• Theft of intellectual property
• Theft of time
• Theft of services
• And others

There are several ways to approach these theft investigations.  But first we have some questions. How did you become aware of the problem? Did someone tell you about it? Did you pick up on it during an inventory? Did you hear about it from the public, from a customer, from an employee? Here are some examples:

• You have missing inventory.
• Your petty cash fund is not balancing correctly and nobody knows why.
• Customer service gets a repair call on a product that, according to the inventory, is still listed as unsold.
• Your competition seems to have nearly identical products and services as you do- same size, same color, identification plates in same location with similar model and serial numbers as yours. If you look at it from ten feet away you would think it’s your product. Even their literature looks like yours including the warranty. It’s almost as if somebody has your blueprints. How is that possible?

Things to do to help these theft investigations along include writing down everything that you can remember. If you work for a company in any capacity and you become aware of a theft matter in your organization discuss the situation with the least number of people as possible. Let’s repeat that “Discuss the situation with the least number of people as possible”.  Preferably you can pass this off to the boss and once you do it is very important to speak of it no more. The more people who know, the better chance the thief will know too. And guess what, the problem miraculously stops until the heat is off.

We have many tools at our disposal when conducting theft investigations. Each matter is unique and may require a multifaceted approach. Listed below is a sampling of some of the techniques and services we may suggest to uncover the truth:

• Covert Camera Installations
• Preliminary Record Searches
• Due Diligence Investigations
• Witness Locates
• Interviewing and Statement Taking
• Product Purchases
• Surveillance Services
• Extensive Database Searches
• Social Media Searches
• And More…

The information developed during these investigations could lead us to anybody. It might involve vendors, suppliers, drivers, employees, competitors, clients, associates or others. So prepare yourself. We never know where these cases will lead. We have been doing these investigations for a long time and we still hear phrases similar to the following. “I can’t believe So and So is involved in this, I just can’t believe it” Well, believe it. It happens all the time.

The short version is our staff needs to be armed with as much information as you can provide and we will work to identify those involved while making suggestions to prevent it from happening again. Contact Us. We can help.