From the Courier News:
Charged with theft, and conspiracy to commit theft, are Michael Lombardozzi, 25, 1178 Fairfield Road, Bridgewater; Jose Caraballo, 18, 452 Front St., Dunellen, and Randy Billie, 21, of Paterson, all sales associates at the store, according to papers filed in Superior Court.So when you get home and find that your "MacBook" box contains someone like Mr. Lombardozzi's bathroom tiles, don't be surprised when you try to return the box and "they don't believe you."Caraballo told Bridgewater police that he received a call at home Dec. 28 from another employee to come to the store and pick up a box. Court papers state that Caraballo knew it was a box of a relatively low-priced item that was repacked and contained a higher-priced item.
Caraballo took the box to the cashier and paid the price listed for the lower-priced item, authorities said.
When he got home with the box, Caraballo opened it and found an LCD projector valued at $1,499, according to court papers.
Lombardozzi told police that on Dec. 23 he took a Mac Book Pro, valued at $2,700, and put it in a box of a lower-priced item and gave it to another employee to buy, according to court papers. The other employee then gave it back to Lombardozzi, authorities said.
Best Buy employees charged with theft [Courier News] (Thanks, Ray!)
(Photo:meghannmarco)
And for those who do manage to come up with something new, they eventually get caught because they get greedy. Do something enough times, eventually someone else will catch on.
]]>Too make this clear as I am related to one of the individuals that is involved with this incident. Theft was a problem through this location. They were not leaving empty boxes on the shelves. Corporate LP came in and placed pinhole cameras in the location and caught Jose. Jose then told LP officials about the other people that had been stealing from that location to save his ass. They got caught because they shouldn't have stolen laptops in the first place and they let all their buddies in the scheme.
]]>Back when I worked at Best Buy, an employee in the shipping receiving office was stealing laptops by unboxing them, wrapping them in a wad of old pallet wrap and then stuffing the laptop into an old pallet. When the store closed the employee would take the pallet out back (with the rest of the old pallets), punch out, and then go around back to claim the booty. Said employee also did this with cameras and stuff, even stuff that was customer property. The only reason he got caught was he tried to slide a copy of The Matrix Reloaded before the street date.
Stores that sell all the cool tech toys seem to have the highest amount of theft.
]]>@homerjay: aaaand that takes care of that.
Lol.
]]>I liked that one!
]]>Hopefully when someone who is less than careful winds up with a box of rocks vs. the $2500 PC that they paid for they can point to this article.
]]>So that article that is linked above says that one of the employees is being charged with theft of an x-box system valued at $1948... are they pricing out electronics on Ebay now? Where did they come up with that price?
]]>"Pssst... Hey, youse wanna Macbook? I gots a good deal for ya..."
]]>But who got the bricks, pieces of wood, or bathroom tiles that they put in the original boxes?
]]>"Michael Lombardozzi, 25, 1178 Fairfield Road, Bridgewater"
]]>This just in! Underpaid employees find way to increase compensation through "fringe benefits!" Details at 11.
Seriously, anyone who's worked retail knows about this kinda stuff. Heck, most people have probably done this unknowingly at somet point. This really isn't news.
]]>Are these the same clowns who refuse to honor their extended warranty?
]]>A person I know that worked at staples said they would do this all the time.
]]>Lesson here - always open the box and verify the contents while still in the store?
]]>Admitting? Yeah right, this was "an isolated incident".
]]>It's been cold this winter... especially here in southern California... maybe its because hell is slowly freezing over as Best Buy has now joined the list of companies admitting that they are not god.
]]>