Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Catching An Embezzling Manager

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Posted by Edward Jurich (Member # 1787) on 10-03-2004, 08:43 PM:

Imagine a single screen theater owned by one individual with a low profit margin. Now add a manager that's embezzling every cent they can. This just happened here. After a record box office with "Passion" and good numbers on a few other films, the owner found out that the theater was $19,500 in the red since Jan 1.
The owner has suspected the manager might be taking money but wasn't sure. So about a month ago we installed security cameras and I almost fell over, the first day of taping caught the manager putting money in his pocket while counting. The second day caught him putting money into his back pack. Third day same thing. Now the task of looking for shortages finds the manager is destroying records including not saving stubs. We watch and document every day and find he's taking both box office and concession at about $350 - $500 a week. We stop the concession stealing by doing complete inventories and he realized we were finding shortages but kept taking box office. We kept counting (on tape) box office and when he reached $620 documented, now a felony, he was arrested and left the theater in handcuffs. We've audited and found June, July & August $8,500 short. Since he was escorted out in handcuffs his stuff was left behind. Luck included a bank statement in his stuff for July and August showing large deposits far more than he makes and verify the shortage for those months.
This guy almost caused the owner to close the theater and was a lesson to keep tabs on what's going on.

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 10-03-2004, 09:12 PM:

Yet another example of an owner too far outside his business. :frown:

A rooster in the henhouse always results in someone or something getting screwed. Hopefully for the owner, theatre, staff and patrons, this will allow those responsible to freshen up a bit on what is happening inside their operation.

Hopefully, the theif will be made an example of so that those who follow think twice about any wrongdoing.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 10-03-2004, 11:00 PM:

I have seen this happen several times to different customers and to the tune of over 20K each time it happened. After these customers realized it was happening they installed pinhole security cameras at each sales station and it was caught on video tape each time. All parties caught were confronted and were prosecuted. One remains in prison to this day. The other two were juveniles and their parents made restitution to each theatre involved.

Mark

Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 10-04-2004, 12:10 AM:

At the very least, each and every absentee theatre owner should use their own checkers. Someone the staff doesn't know should go in, buy a ticket, and count heads on a regular basis. Just like the film co's do. Your asking for it if you don't.
When it comes to money, you can't be too trusting.

My first job as a theatre manager, I was quickly suspicious of what the owner had bragged as his best employee.

In my first two weeks, I fired this "wonderful" 3 yr employee for theft of cash. He was double selling tickets.
No wonder he was always so willing to work anytime he was needed! [Eek!]

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 10-04-2004, 11:01 AM:

It's a sad fact of life in the theater business, but it does happen when the cat's away the mice will play. Video cameras should be standard at all theaters, IMO.

Posted by Don Anderson (Member # 397) on 10-04-2004, 01:46 PM:

I had a concession worker do the same thing. Funny thing, his friend turned him in. I placed a b/w wireless camera behind a Pepsi clock, and caught him in the act. He was escorted to the police station via a squad car. Confessed to stealing 600 bucks in one month. We never recouped a cent from his arrest. To this day his is still friends with his buddy that squealed on him, not knowing that he turned him in. Funny thing, I don't know his friend from adam, he didn't want to see him end up in jail. He was using the money to by drugs.

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 10-04-2004, 03:09 PM:

We should all be so lucky to have friends like that.

The trouble with video cameras is when there's no one around to check them, i.e. with large chains where D.M's and corporate management only come down on scheduled visits and trips.
Most Wallace theaters don't even have door alarms let alone security cameras. The whole concept is dead if you can't rely on the on-site management to do their job and take pride in it.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-04-2004, 06:34 PM:

The embezzling stuff really gets me pissed. Even though it takes people to monitor video surveillance cameras, I see a day in the not too distant future where every damned office cubicle has a couple wireless Internet-based video cameras looking over your shoulder making sure you're not goofing off any at your job. That will all be thanks to those crooked assholes who steal on the job.

Posted by Edward Jurich (Member # 1787) on 10-05-2004, 09:25 AM:

The cameras need to be recording so you can go back and check, and use for proof in court. The owner here plans on suing in civil court, so far we've audited $9,000 missing back to June. We suspect that after we audit to Jan we could be looking at something near $30,000. The arrest is OK and the fact that the detective caught him in the act of stealing, filing a false box office report, will be good. But this is a first offense and around here it's a slap on the hand. However, civil court will be another matter.

Posted by R. Andrew Diercks (Member # 1725) on 10-05-2004, 02:06 PM:

The problem with catching managers is the difficulty in keeping the location of cameras a secret. They can easily take money while transfering it from the safe to registers or vice versa. I would love to have cameras on concession to watch the concessionists. Might even be a good tool to see who is the most efficient.

quote: Bobby Henderson
I see a day in the not too distant future where every damned office cubicle has a couple wireless Internet-based video cameras looking over your shoulder making sure you're not goofing off any at your job.

I could see this happening too. I guess my opinion of that is if you can't trust your manager's to do the right thing at work, why are you allowing them to run a multi-million dollar facility in the first place. I wonder how easily a company would keep help if they used this technology.

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 10-05-2004, 02:20 PM:

quote: Ken Layton
It's a sad fact of life in the theater business, but it does happen when the cat's away the mice will play.

Hot Tip, Ken: It happens in ALL businesses!

Sad, but true.

>>> Phil

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 10-05-2004, 11:19 PM:

One day I was in the office (safe room) with the regional manager of my company. They had just completed closing the day's books and counting the receipts.

He said to me, "That's an awful lot of money sitting right there! Wouldn't you be tempted to take it?"
I repleied, "How much is there? $10,000?" He told me the actual count which was much higher." When I told him that wasn't enough money to get me interested he was puzzled why I said that.

I said that no matter how "smart" I think I am in figuring out ways to steal money, eventually the company will figure it out and come looking for me. If I was to even THINK about stealing it would have to be MUCH higher than that! A mere $50,000 isn't enough!

When asked how much it would take to make me think about stealing I told him, "Oh, a couple-three million..." His reply was, "Then I could trust you with money as long as it was less than $3,000,000? Why is that?" I told him that was enough money for me to live on while I laid low in some other country waiting for the "heat" to blow over. He still had a quizzical look.

I explained: No matter how ingenious I think I am when I try to steal, somebody will eventually figure it out and I'll be caught. The only REAL way to steal from the company would be for me (or the hypothetical person) to pick up as much money as he could possibly carry, head out the back door and hop on a plane to Mexico... Never to be seen again. The amount of money it takes to uproot one's entire life and live in another country for several years... decades... or even the rest of your life... until the statute of limitaions runs out is the MINIMUM amount it would take to get me to even THINK about taking money. Besides, there's FAR more advantage in being a trustworthy person in the company's eyes. People who can handle large amounts of money without fear of "giving in to weakness" will likely earn much more money because of inreased pay (over their lifetime) than they could ever hope to get by stealing.

So, Boss, you see, it's more than just a simple question of honesty. Honesty is important! But, if you think about it, any reasonably intelligent person should be able to see that it's just not worth it to steal!

I never had any more questions about being around lots of money from THAT boss! [Big Grin]

Long story short: People who steal from the company aren't very smart. If they thought about it for a minute they would realize how stupid they are!

Posted by Jim Ziegler (Member # 86) on 10-07-2004, 01:53 PM:

I had 20 of those webcam things at my last theatre (this was the only theatre in the company that had them)... If a manager stopped to write a memo duringthe afternoon, I got a call from the home office that my managers we hanging out in the office. If my box office employee started doing homework, I got a call from the home office. If I was doing bookings on Monday afternoon, I got a call from the home office wondering what I was working on.

Bottom line - they are annoying, they make you feel like you are in a fish bowl, and I would never even consider working in a theatre that had them again.

Posted by Edward Jurich (Member # 1787) on 10-08-2004, 09:33 AM:

quote: Jim Ziegler
Bottom line - they are annoying, they make you feel like you are in a fish bowl, and I would never even consider working in a theatre that had them again

That's more a problem with management mis-using the cameras and probably not good people to work for even if the cameras were not there.
One thing I think is that employess need to know there are cameras around. The owner here did not want anyone to know where the cameras are but I informed our 17 year old female employee that the office has a camera and not to do anything she didn't want others to see like get dressed in there.

Posted by Jim Ziegler (Member # 86) on 10-08-2004, 01:40 PM:

I'll give you a hint Edward - it was a KC based chain that is about to get pummeled by AMC... And no, I would not ever consider working for them again as long as they are run by their current CEO.

Posted by Adam Wilbert (Member # 1184) on 10-08-2004, 02:17 PM:

A counter argument -
I actually want to be on camera. At a previous location, the cameras were staged so that the money was on tape from the moment it was passed through the box window (or over the concession stand) until it was placed into the drop safe. The route between till and safe was very carefully taped and there should be no reason to have money moving outside of that corridor. IMHO, if ever something did turn up missing (legitamately misplaced or otherwise) I want to be able to go back to the tape and say, "look there, it wasn't me." That being said, the cameras serve a much more useful purpose in the day to day operations of the theatre in that you can assess everything that is going on in the building from one place.

Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 10-08-2004, 02:46 PM:

quote: Edward Jurich
The owner here did not want anyone to know where the cameras are but I informed our 17 year old female employee that the office has a camera and not to do anything she didn't want others to see like get dressed in there.

That was noble, but didn't you think that she might compromise the whole sting by letting it slip to the manager. I mean I'm not trying to be a pig or anything, but I'd just as soon tell her to get dressed elsewhere and not include any reason as to why the office was now off-limits. If she or anybody else questioned, just tell her a story that seemed acceptable to all on your particular theater's staff and would not arouse suspicion of the manager.

Posted by Matthew Nock (Member # 1575) on 10-08-2004, 07:24 PM:

I have to agree with Aaron on this one.

While it may have been noble to let her know .... it would have been simpler to say "The Office is an office. Nothing more"

Our office is "off limits" to all staff except those on the management team. There is a lot of sensitive information, dealings etc that go on in the office that regular floor staff do not need to know etc.

If our staff want to get changed, they get changed in the one of the single large Disabled Toilets. There is plenty of room in there.

Unfortunately, it is in the nature of people today that its okay to steal from your employer... The crazy thing is, with the number of people wanting jobs in cinemas, why would any one risk it? (I suppose its because people think they are so good that they can get away with it).

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 10-10-2004, 11:19 AM:

Isn't it illegal to surveil people with hidden cameras without their knowledge that they're being recorded?
IMHO floor staff shouldn't be in the office without a manager and changing in there is just not neccessary.

Posted by Jim Ziegler (Member # 86) on 10-10-2004, 01:51 PM:

It depends on your state law. There is no federal law that I am aware of that would prohibit it. Constitutional privacy protections only ally to governemnt actions, not actions by private entities.

Posted by Adam Wilbert (Member # 1184) on 10-10-2004, 03:06 PM:

I think that such laws exist, but only in places where a person has "a reasonable expectation of privacy" ie bathroom, changing room, etc. I highly doubt that that would apply to public areas, such as the box office or concession stand, or private offices.

quote: Matthew Nock
There is a lot of sensitive information, dealings etc that go on in the office that regular floor staff do not need to know etc.

Matthew, you sound like you're running a speakeasy upstairs! [Big Grin]

Posted by Brandon Willis (Member # 2345) on 10-14-2004, 10:55 AM:

We had some employees a couple years back devise a system of stealing where they'd take a customer's order, ring it in on the register so that the total showed up on the display, and if the customer gave exact change, pocket the money and then clear out the sale. By doing this, the money in the drawer matched what was rung up on the register and they were even. We caught on to this when our nightly inventory started coming up short whenever certain employees were working. We then watched the security tapes, and caught on to what they were doing. We now run a report of all cleared sales for each cashier and if any cashier is outisde of a certain acceptable margin, they get a write-up.

Posted by Matthew Nock (Member # 1575) on 10-15-2004, 05:22 AM:

quote:
Matthew, you sound like you're running a speakeasy upstairs!

Well, how else are we supposed to make money? what with all the ridiculous film distributor take! [Smile]

Posted by Edward Jurich (Member # 1787) on 12-07-2004, 09:30 AM:

Turn of events, the owner wanted "me" to falsify weekend box office reports so he wouldn't have to keep a feature another week. As it turned out, weekend box office was below the dollar amount anyway. However, I now have no further contact with this owner or theaters. As for the owner [fu]

Posted by Chris Brown (Member # 2800) on 12-07-2004, 11:57 AM:

We just got high quality cameras installed at my theatre in August. Great picture, zoom, etc. There is a camera now over each set of concession and box registers. The interesting thing is that if we were held up or robbed, they probably couldnt capture enough of the person to ID them, but they are specifically placed where they are to catch employees.

This I dont really have a problem with. But if they are used like Jim was describing (like a Big Brother type thing keeping tabs on everything you do), then I would definitely say that's taking it too far. The purpose isnt necessarily high-tech surveillance; its there so if a theft situation arises, you can go back and watch the recordings to resolve it.

Thankfully our unit records everything on a DVR, so we can go back and watch recordings if we have to.

The employees dont like the fact that we can keep tabs on them, of course. And I dont totally blame them...but I think this day in age, it really is a necessary precaution.

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 12-08-2004, 12:40 AM:

Oh Ed, I'm so sorry. You must be so depressed having formerly been associated with MUCH bigger, better, smarter, more brazen, corrupt, & entertaining entertainment industry operators. They don't make 'em like they used to. Well, we've all got our memories.