For a number of years, I had a career that I was building in Loss Prevention; this career path landed me a job as a Surveillance Supervisor in a casino for a time.  The time that I spent there was interesting to say the least, but as you can guess it left me with a number of stories to share. I will change names and not tell the name of the company I worked for to protect myself and to not damage the image of the company.

 

This particular story needs a little background before it can be told properly.  The particular company that I was involved with had an employee of the month program where it would select 5 employees from the entirety of the casino every month.  Further, they had an employee of the year program where they selected 5 employees from the casino every year. Even further, they had an employee of the region program where they would select 5 employees from the region (i.e. New England, Mid-Atlantic, Central, England, China, etc.).  Finally, they had an employee of the company program that they did every year where 5 were selected. They were invited to Las Vegas and showered with prizes and company stock that totaled to roughly $25,000+ in value…this set-up brings us to Jerry.

 

Jerry was a blind man since birth.  He was a very bubbly personality that fit right in line with the type of personality you want in that of a service employee.  The thing that was unique about Jerry as a blind man was that he was a cashier. You may ask….How does that work?? Jerry was a smart man and had realized that you only had to hit 3 buttons ever to do the cashier job at the area he was positioned in (Employee Cafeteria).  Jerry had a friend help him craft a plastic cover that slid over the register screen; this made it so he could only hit the buttons he needed to hit.

 

Jerry worked at the casino for roughly 2 years and during this time learned some tricks of the trade.  He realized that in general most people were honest with him, and moreover, he learned that few people suspect that someone with his particular disability would be suspicious of dishonesty.  

 

My job was to attempt to catch theft in all areas of the casino, but when we were not proactive with it, we had to investigate claims.  One day Jerry’s boss called and said that he does not normally work on the line but he thought Jerry was acting particularly strange this day.  We got the call and were watching Jerry at his register from our cameras. We saw him take a $20 from an employee and give the employee the proper change.  He then placed the $20 on top of the register. 10 minutes later when he thought no one was looking, he picked up the bill and rolled it like you would a sleeping bag; with this new tiny cylinder, he began to switch it between hands and eventually stuck it up into his sleeve never to be seen again.

 

We watched him for several more hours and saw him do this on the regular.  We went back in coverage and saw him do this on many other days as well. We were unable to get a complete total due to the sheer number of times we had in coverage.  We also were unsure how long this had been going on prior. Jerry was questioned and admitted to the theft of money from the casino. He was fired and evicted from the property for his actions.

 

The Kicker?

 

Jerry was just recently named employee of the year…for the company prior to getting caught for theft.  One of the 5 employees that received $25,000+ in compensations was caught stealing and fired just months later.

 

The Moral

 

If you want to get away with murder, just make it so that you can’t see yourself doing it.