An Inside Job?

On April 1st, Alan came home from work and showed me this picture of a check from his office and asked me if that looked like his signature:

My response was immediate - definitely not! That doesn't look a thing like Alan's signature.

He then proceeded to tell me about how someone went into his office, turned off the alarm, and then stole a bank deposit bag that was sitting in Kathi's (business manager) desk drawer. There was over $1,000 in the bag and some checks ready to be deposited. He/she also took at least one check (the one pictured above) and some other items. Fortunately, no computers or electronic items were taken.

Evidently, the person in the picture above, took the check to a check cashing establishment and tried to cash it. The person helping him got a little suspicious about it and asked where he got the check from. He replied that he worked for Dr. Stott and that it was a paycheck for the work he had done. Unbeknownst to him, Kathi was on the phone and could hear their conversation. She piped in and said, "oh, and what do you do at Dr. Stott's office?" With that, the perp got spooked and grabbed the I.D. and check and left the building.

A police report was issued, but we haven't heard anything back from them yet. I hope they catch the guy. It could be fake I.D. that was used.

Of course, the first few questions we had is who is this guy, how did he get into the office, and how did he know the alarm code in order to turn it off? We figured it had to be an inside job. Alan trusts his current employees (unlike some he has had to previously let go - one was stealing antibiotics from the office) so he didn't think any of them could have done this. The suspicion then turned to the cleaning lady who comes in after hours to clean the office. She has a key and she knows the alarm code. We don't think it was her, but think it was her son or daughter-in-law who sometimes cleans the office when she can't do it. Alan had to re-key the office so he asked for her key to be turned in. Interestingly, the key she gave him had "Walmart" on it. Alan never copies keys at Walmart, so this couldn't have been the key he had issued to her. Most likely, the son had the key copied at Walmart.

Alan asked the cleaning lady if she knew the person on the I.D. in the picture, but she denied knowing him. She lost her job because of this. The staff decided to do all the cleaning themselves at the end of the day so as to avoid having someone come in after hours.

Alan has made arrangements to have security cameras installed in two more days. It sure would have been nice to have had them in the first place so we could see the footage of who pulled off this crime, or maybe the cameras would have been a detriment to someone trying to steal in the first place.

We live in such a wicked world. So much crime goes on around here. I don't know how the police keep up on all of the reported thefts and other crimes that are committed daily. Personally, we have had a bicycle, a motorcycle, a quad, and two air conditioning units stolen in the past. Time to move out of California!!! I have been wanting to move out for a very long time now. I just need to talk Alan into retiring!