Another aspect of this type of problem that’s very hard to digest is that it’s often easier to dismiss the employee rather than terminate them with cause or proceed with a criminal investigation. In my experience, both Legal and HR advise dismissal because you have to have a rock-solid case in order to terminate with cause for theft. Additionally, HR advised that the forensic investigation required to obtain “rock solid” evidence would be too disruptive to the business.

The SECOND time I had to deal with this type of situation, I didn’t bother investigating. I stuck cameras up in the hallway — not recording, not connected to anything. Three days later, I “casually mentioned” to all of the admins that we’ve had cameras in place for 3 days, and we managed to capture a picture of the thief in action, and that we got a really good picture of his face. I told them HR is “working on an airtight approach” and that the thief’s termination and a subsequent criminal investigation was pending.

A day later, the thief resigned — validated by the fact that no further thefts occurred.

I realize that I’m stereotyping the admins as gossips — in this case, the admins happened to be adept at inappropriately sharing information, but there is always a “known gossip” in the office who can inadvertently do your dirty work for you. Just to drive the point home, and virtually ensure they would pass the information along, I looked around and then whispered “don’t tell anyone, but….”.

Rumors can often be more valuable than proof.