I guess greed can overrule things like "common sense".

Idiot indeed.

@LadyPhoenix

That would mean that Idiot was born with common sense. Obviously, she wasn't if she refused to believe that cameras were watching her every move at the register.

We recently had an employee who came up with an ingenious plan. She would ring out the customer and those who would pay with cash, she would pocket the money and then void off the receipt. If it was a credit card sale, she would process it as usual.

We would have never caught her had a customer not called in thinking she was overcharged and didn't get a receipt.

My brother once told a female coworker about a dream he had with her in it. Nothing sexual. Just her behind a floating desk blathering on. She sued him and the store for sexual harassment over that dream.

The lawsuit got dropped and she got fired when they found video footage of her stealing from the cash register. More than that, they found out she's lost jobs in the past for the exact same thing.

S.A.G., no he wasn't [as near as I could tell.] He was smart, just greedy.

Believe me, I could use some extra $$$ myself, but robbing the till when we have videocameras covering the area isn't the way to get it.

There was a bit on World's Dumbest Criminals where the cashier knocked something off the counter so the little old lady customer would pick it up, and when she bent over, he pulled a handful of cash out of the purse she'd left on the counter, COUNTED IT, and then hid it.

Too stupid to live indeed...

We had a girl steal $60 from her register within her first week of work. Knowing there were cameras watching and knowing exactly where they were, she left her drawer open after a transaction, took three twenties out of her drawer, set them on the counter, turned her body to block the view of the drawer from the camera and pocketed the money. One second they were there, next they were gone. When she was confronted about it the next day, she was told she could pay it back out of her paycheck (payday was the next week, IIRC) or they could call the cops. The first words out of her mouth were, "Oh...so, am I fired, then?"

TSTL, indeed.

Melpomene, that reminds me of something a fairly creepy guy who stopped by the gas station where I worked one time told me he'd do:

At the full serve, when customers asked to get their oil checked, he'd wipe the dipstick down to look like they were down. Then, when he went to top them up, he'd take the cap off, but only pretend to puncture the seal. He'd act out topping it up, put the cap back on (as we all do, so the garbage bags don't get gross), and toss it in the garbage.

After the customer left, he'd fish the oil jug back out of the garbage, put it back onto the shelf, and do a cash return for the oil and pocket it. he claimed he'd never been caught.

I can see it working, but I'd never be so dishonest as to try it myself. Also I like to think that I wouldn't be so stupid as to tell some random stranger off the street all about it.

I have a tale of a smart criminal at my old store.

We sold wine, beer, and kegs. The customer would put down a "keg deposit" to cover the actual keg and the tap, and get it back when they returned the items. We'd return the keg to the manufacturer for recycling and get a little break in return.

In addition, every six months the local park rangers would do a "round up" in the local vacation cabins and collect kegs from underage drinkers. They'd bring the used kegs to us but refused to take any money for them.

One manager decided to scam the system. Every few weeks, he'd ring up a "keg deposit return" and pocket the $40. Since the store didn't do "empty keg inventory," and the kegs from the park rangers always kind of rounded things out, he got away with this for almost fifteen years. He got about $20,000 out of the company in total.

If one Assistant Manager hadn't been on the ball, he probably would have gotten away with it all the way up to retirement. Smart.