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ex employee stealing

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iheartny2003

Junior Member
Maryland

We fired an employee about a month ago for various reasons, basically not showing up for work etc...
We own a medical equipment company and It appears that this employee was stealing equipment from us and selling it to people. We are getting requests from customers to repair equipment that was never entered into our system, sold to them by the fired employee. We don't want the customers to know that we had an unethical employee, but we want it on record that this employee stold and sold to customers. Is small claims court the way to go with this? It seems like we are experiencing a trickle down effect with these calls coming in and we expect to have to resolve more than one theft with this employee. ANY thoughts will be appreciated.
 


I AM ALWAYS LIABLE

Senior Member
iheartny2003 said:
Maryland

We fired an employee about a month ago for various reasons, basically not showing up for work etc...
We own a medical equipment company and It appears that this employee was stealing equipment from us and selling it to people. We are getting requests from customers to repair equipment that was never entered into our system, sold to them by the fired employee. We don't want the customers to know that we had an unethical employee, but we want it on record that this employee stold and sold to customers. Is small claims court the way to go with this? It seems like we are experiencing a trickle down effect with these calls coming in and we expect to have to resolve more than one theft with this employee. ANY thoughts will be appreciated.

My response:

1. Besides word of mouth, what ACTUAL PROOF do you have that the former employee was the "thief"?

2. Besides word of mouth, what ACTUAL PROOF do you have that the former employee sold equipment to these "customers"?

2. What is the value of the "known" stolen equipment, so far?

3. Why did it take "phone calls" from customers to discover that the equipment was stolen; i.e., who is checking your stock against invoices?

IAAL
 

iheartny2003

Junior Member
This last customer has a hand written reciept, with our company name. The value is 2 wheelchair batteries-maybe $280, The other instance that we know of is that he charged 50 customers $5 each to slow down the speed of their wheelchairs. Slowing them down was requested by the owner of the assisted living where they lived, and the boss sent him over to do the job, never giving him authority to charge the customer.
These are elderly people whom we never plan to ask them to sign anything, or drag them to court.
The reason the inventory was not red flagged is that the salesmen have a number of different samples in their vehicles as every patient is different size, weight etc. The salesmen switch these items ocassionally depending on what the patient needs. We suspect he was taking the samples that we don't keep track of.
 

I AM ALWAYS LIABLE

Senior Member
iheartny2003 said:
This last customer has a hand written reciept, with our company name. The value is 2 wheelchair batteries-maybe $280, The other instance that we know of is that he charged 50 customers $5 each to slow down the speed of their wheelchairs. Slowing them down was requested by the owner of the assisted living where they lived, and the boss sent him over to do the job, never giving him authority to charge the customer.
These are elderly people whom we never plan to ask them to sign anything, or drag them to court.
The reason the inventory was not red flagged is that the salesmen have a number of different samples in their vehicles as every patient is different size, weight etc. The salesmen switch these items ocassionally depending on what the patient needs. We suspect he was taking the samples that we don't keep track of.

My response:

Sue him in Small Claims court. Take whatever evidence you have, and any percipient witnesses to these unlawful acts, and sue the hell out of him. Not only for your actual dollar damages, but also for Punitive or Exemplary Damages to teach him an expensive lesson.

IAAL
 

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