Internal Theft Inquiries
in Memphis.
When one employee is suspected of taking cash, stock or company resources, the difference between a clean dismissal and a lawsuit is documentation. Watchtower produces it.
Suspecting is not the same as being able to prove it.
Memphis is a distribution city. Warehousing, logistics and freight handling around the airport and the I-40 and I-55 corridors move enormous volumes of goods through the hands of shift workers, and the opportunities for internal loss are correspondingly large.
Most employers already know who they suspect by the time they call. What they lack is anything they could put in front of an attorney, an unemployment referee or a prosecutor. Acting on suspicion alone is how a straightforward dismissal becomes a wrongful termination claim or, worse, a defamation problem.
A focused inquiry documents the specific conduct. That may be surveillance, it may be reconciling records against physical activity, and it may involve coordinating with your own internal audit. What it should not involve is confronting the employee before the evidence exists, which almost always ends the investigation prematurely.
What typically prompts the call
Usually a discrepancy that has stopped being explicable.
Inventory shrinkage concentrated on particular shifts or people
Cash variances that follow one individual's schedule
Product appearing for resale through secondary channels
Voids, refunds or adjustments clustered around one employee
Equipment or supplies disappearing without a documented route
A tip from another employee that internal review cannot substantiate
How an internal theft inquiry runs
Assessment
We review what is known, what has already been done internally, and whether evidence has already been compromised by internal steps.
Plan & Preserve
An approach that preserves evidence and avoids alerting the subject, agreed with you and your counsel before anything begins.
Documentation
Covert observation, records reconciliation and, where warranted, coordinated review of company-owned systems.
Evidence Package
A documented chronology with supporting media, structured for dismissal, civil recovery or referral to law enforcement.
Why employers use an outside investigator
Defensible outcomes
Documentation that holds up at an unemployment hearing or against a wrongful termination claim.
No internal contamination
Internal investigators have relationships, biases and an information trail. An outside investigator has none of those.
Recovery preserved
Proper documentation keeps civil recovery and insurance claims available rather than foreclosing them.
Discreet while it runs
The workforce does not learn an investigation is under way, which matters if more than one person is involved.
Employee theft investigations, answered.
Almost never, and this is the single most common mistake. A premature confrontation alerts the subject, prompts destruction of evidence, warns any accomplices, and can generate statements that create legal problems for you. Document first, confront once you have the evidence, and take your counsel's advice on how.
It depends on your policies, what the employee agreed to, and where the property sits. Company-owned lockers covered by a clear policy are one situation; a personal vehicle in a public lot is a very different one. Get this wrong and you create liability, so check with employment counsel before searching anything.
Recovery is a legal process rather than an investigative one, but it depends entirely on the quality of the documentation. Properly evidenced findings support civil recovery, a fidelity or crime insurance claim, and restitution if the matter is prosecuted. Poor documentation forecloses all three.
That is common, particularly in distribution environments where a scheme needs cooperation to work. This is exactly why we advise against early confrontation — moving on one person prematurely warns everyone else and usually ends any chance of documenting the full scheme.
Related business & corporate matters casework
Matters we handle alongside this one.
Document it properly the first time.
Tell us what you have found internally and we will tell you honestly whether it can be turned into usable evidence.