Someone stole 1100 dollars from my family. Any advice?

Question

My parents run an animal hospital. They were worried money might be going missing so they counted the money this morning. They shuffled it all up again so it didn't appear like it was counted. Then Heidi, an employee of ours, took out 200 dollars of it to use as a float for the business for the day. Barbie, my mothers sister, was in charge of depositing the 1400 dollars that remained. When my parents got home they checked how much was deposited and saw that only 300 dollars was deposited. They confronted barbie about it, and she acted clueless and surpisingly non concerned. They called the cops and they will soon ask barbie to take a polygraph but it is not manditory. Barbie 2 weeks ago said she was going to cut off all contact with our family, but we didn't fire her because we thought that would make our grandparents upset and mad at my mother. So now barbie has 1100 dollars of our money, and we can't prove it. Any advice? Would calling a private investigator help at all?

Answer 1

I believe you've done all you can do unless you actually witnessed her steal the money. Above all, get rid of her.

Answer 2

If Barbie really did take the money, as opposed to Heidi or anyone else who had access, and if she is smart, no investigator is going to be able to find that money and prove it, so it is your business's word against an employee, who now can sue you for wrongful firing, for libel slander ... she will claim she stole nothing, and you all defamed her name, her good reputation, and will want a heck of a lot more than $ 1100.00 from you to repair that.

Operating a family business can be especially dangerous when you make decisions based on family (grandmother) instead of good business sense.

Do you expect an employee to travel from the business to the bank to deposit over $ 1,000.00? Are you properly insured against that person getting mugged?

You can put hidden cameras looking at where the money is stored, with motion detection so they not going 24 hours a day, just when people doing something there. Be sure to keep track of who has access to the cameras, so that when you find money missing, and a gap in camera tape, you have a clue who may have put the gap there.

Answer 3

You coddled the thief not to upset grandparents ?
That was dumb and $1100 appears to be the price of the lesson .
If there is a thief , the grandparents should come down on the side of integrity ,
If they don't . . . they're not worth it .

The PI would cost $$$ and unless you have a video of her taking the $1100 , you still have no proof .

Think they'll be coddling any more thieves ?

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Answer 4

So, why do adults keep such large amounts of money around for people to steal... Why did you not just deposit the money and this whole thing of trying to catch some one stealing is all bogus... You did not catch any one stealing -- want to use the theft as a tax write off.. And just keep the money for yourself for spending...I would never work for some one as dishonest as your parents...

Answer 5

Yes call a detective check the tapes


Ps.- hire a security gurd @ security guards

Answer 6

You are out of luck, all you can do is fire her and call the police.