Inventory Shrinkage Inquiries
in Shelby County.
Repeating, unexplained loss across a site is a different problem from one dishonest employee. Watchtower traces it to its actual source — a person, a group, or a process failure.
Shrinkage is a symptom. The cause is what you are paying to find.
Shelby County's warehousing and distribution density means shrinkage here is measured against very large volumes, and a loss rate that looks small as a percentage can be substantial in absolute dollars. It also means loss can persist for a long time before anyone can say with confidence where it is happening.
The critical early question is whether you have a theft problem at all. A meaningful share of the shrinkage investigations we run conclude that the loss is procedural — receiving errors, mis-scans, damaged goods written off inconsistently, a system configuration producing phantom inventory. That is a genuinely useful finding, and it is cheaper to establish than to assume.
Where theft is occurring, scale and structure matter. One employee taking product occasionally looks very different in the data from a coordinated scheme involving a driver, a dock worker and an outside receiver. The investigative approach differs accordingly.
Patterns worth investigating
Shrinkage that follows a pattern is usually telling you something.
Loss concentrated in particular SKUs, shifts or dock doors
Cycle count variances that reconcile in one direction only
Loss that stops during audits and resumes afterward
Product appearing through secondary or online resale channels
Paperwork discrepancies clustered around specific routes or carriers
Rates that diverge sharply between comparable sites
How a shrinkage inquiry is structured
Data Review
We work from your loss data first to identify where and when it concentrates, so fieldwork is targeted rather than speculative.
Process or Theft
We establish whether the pattern is consistent with procedural loss before assuming dishonesty, because frequently it is.
Targeted Observation
Where theft is indicated, covert observation focused on the specific windows and locations the data points to.
Findings & Remediation
A documented report identifying source and method, with the process gaps that allowed it, for action and recovery.
Why data-led beats watching everything
Targeted, not blanket
Data narrows where and when to watch, which makes the engagement far cheaper and far more likely to produce a result.
Process loss identified
We will tell you when the problem is procedural rather than manufacturing a theft finding to justify the engagement.
Schemes mapped whole
Where several people are involved, the objective is the whole structure rather than the easiest individual to catch.
Gaps closed
Findings include the control weaknesses that permitted the loss, so it does not simply resume with different people.
Shrinkage investigations, answered.
Often you do not, which is why the data review comes first. Procedural loss and theft tend to leave different signatures — theft usually correlates with specific people, shifts or windows, while process loss tends to distribute more evenly and follow transaction types. Establishing which you have is the first deliverable.
Where coverage and retention allow, yes, and reviewing existing footage against your loss data is frequently the cheapest productive step available. The usual limitations are short retention windows and cameras positioned for safety rather than for loss prevention.
Not if it is done properly. Covert observation is designed to be unremarkable, and the data review happens without any site presence at all. Where several people are involved, keeping it quiet is essential to documenting the full scheme rather than one participant.
It varies with site size and how tightly the data localizes the problem, which is exactly why we start with data. A focused engagement on a well-localized pattern costs a fraction of blanket observation, and we scope it against the loss you are actually carrying.
Related business & corporate matters casework
Matters we handle alongside this one.
Find the source, not just a suspect.
Send us the loss data and we will tell you whether it points at a person or at a process.