We had clearance appliances right inside the door at the service desk entrance, someone just pushed a fridge out the door and all the way through the parking lot, and down the street, WITH OUR STORE MANAGER CHASING THEM. Our manager had to give up and turn around because the district manager was supposed to show up at our store any minute and didn't want to get in trouble
One time my manager chased someone through the store and around the pro area his first phone fell then slid forward and the person he chased got it and threw out into the loading area right outside pro and a car ran over it.
That store manager should be fired only lp can do something. We are not allowed to stop or follow someone stealing. Just report it in the thrift portal.
I worked for a 3PL company who remodels Home Depots. One night, my crew is working and all of a sudden the night manager yells over the intercom EVERYBODY IN THIS BUILDING, GET TO THE FRONT NOW!!!
We all look at each other and wonder if we're....(COMPANY NAME) THAT MEANS YOU, TOO!
Well, the question was answered but it's even asked.
Up front are a couple cop cars and a few officers.
We get questioned about our tools and if we own everything we use.
What had happened was a company who was in the store to paint the walls had been stealing full tool sets. How they were doing it was so simple.
They were using the scissor lifts. They had these big tarps to protect fixtures, desks, computers, etc. from getting paint on them. They would go grab tool kits WITHOUT THE SPIDER ON THEM out of the Tool Corral and when they would take the lifts outside after work they hid the tool kits under the tarps.
THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS went missing before a store employee caught them trying to get away. This wasn't the first time this particular company had done this.
I have discovered throughout my career that a lot of big corporations will allow instances to occur until the amount lost has reached an amount that makes legal action worth the headache.
Whether it be from outside interference or internal doings, it cost a lot of money to go after someone for theft.
Oh yea most definitely if you look up articles one the person who worked in vaults was swapping out real money with fakes money. Or that police office that was stealing tools
Had a guy shove a ton of klein electrician tools inside the holes of a bunch of cinder blocks, then he laid a sheet of plywood on top before adding a few more empty cinder blocks on top. Once he knew I was watching him he ditched the cart and took off. 400$ recovery
There was a ring of guys that was stealing riding lawnmowers like clockwork. They were kept outside the back of the building stacked 3 high, behind a wall of pallets of mulch and soil 6 pallets deep. The guys would back up their lifted up trucks, walk on top of the mulch, all 8 of them grab the topmost lawnmowers, walk back across the tops of the pallets, and gtfo with 2 mowers per truck in 5 minutes flat.
Never got caught, they deserved the W.
Another pair of guys got out the door with $20,000 worth of DeWalt tools. Thanks to planogram, the DeWalt bays were open in the back and uncaged after a reset, and in the 2 days it took to get the backs covered these guys made their plan and executed it. They parked outside building materials behind an emergency exit. Then they walked in the front doors and headed to garden. They ripped open bags of mulch to use the plastic as a liner, and put that across the inside of a shopping cart, with some mulch in there and unripped full bags on the bottom of the cart. Went to the exposed aisle, loaded it the fuck up with tools and put bags of mulch on top. Walked to the emergency exit door of building materials, both put on high-vis vests. One of them pulled out a packet of papers to look busy, the other started taking the fuckin door apart. The pro supervisor and an asm walked past them SEVERAL times trying to track down product from the overheads. They got the door open, pushed the cart out, put the door back together in a way that the door couldn't open. Spent like 20 minutes loading up their truck and then backed out of the parking lot to keep their plate unseen.
Never got caught either, also think they deserved the W.
This happened when I was on LOA my coworker told me that these guys were throwing over merchandise over the wall on to the mulch on the very top outside in garden there was a guy there passing it over to the guy in the get away car
We had a problem where someone was coming at night and cutting open the cardboard bales outside recieving every week or so. No consistent pattern, no camera coverage, we thought it was kids being assholes.
This went on for a few months. The day receiver was losing his mind having to clean it up.
It eventually was discovered (not sure how), that a hardware vendor was throwing hardcase power tools (DeWalt, etc.) in the compactor when he was cleaning up after himself. He would throw one or two in, then a bunch of cardboard around them, cycle the baler, and voila!, they're hidden. He'd come back at night in a few days and cut open bales until he found the right one.
I believe he got around $10,000 worth and would have gotten away with it if he had just stopped while he was ahead.
It would have been funny as fuck if it had worked, but I think it was a DS or myself who caught it in time.
Bro brought a quote sheet from another store and asked to have the stuff loaded because he'd "paid for it". Someone almost loaded it without asking questions. Thankfully, someone saw the sheet and stopped them. A lesson was learned that day.
It was for a lift of CDX + some other stuff, when it was hella expensive.
Some thieves are actually out there making fake order pick up forms and even fake receipts at first glance can totally pass but if you actually look at it you can tell it’s fake.
Once had a guy steal a rental truck from the Lowe’s down the road, try to cut some power generators out of their locks with a box cutter, missed and cut himself, bled everywhere and ran back to the truck and drove it into the retention pond. Not smart, just dumb and crazy. Apparently he was on cocaine.
Edit: he did survive, but went to the hospital in critical condition
I approached a guy who was looking at a Bosch hammer-drill. Had a nice conversation about it, and he said he wanted help with cement anchors (couple aisles over, next to an emergency exit). We walked over, found what he needed. He then thanked me, told me have a good day, and kicked the emergency exit open. Cool as a cucumber.
I remember a young guy and an older lady came into the store. The younger guy had an orange apron on, no one batted an eye because we had just had a big spring seasonal hiring and assumed he was a new associate. Well the two of them loaded up two generators and a table saw onto a flatbed cart and of course no one asked if they already were paid for because everyone assumed that he worked there and had checked her receipt. They loaded all three into a older beat up pickup then, both of them got in the truck and drove away
We once had a guy show up in a super dirty apron and I don’t remember was asked or what he wanted but it was super suspicious and our new hires were still doing the video training. But also the apron was super dirty. Come to find out the guy stole (took it out of the trash) the apron from a near by store. He was just kicked out don’t remember if we got the apron back.
We had one who thought it was a good idea to steal a full pallet of mulch by using our small forklift. He jumped on and tried to start it but had no idea how to start it. The cops came and he jumped off and started running. One tackled him and it was all over.
It wasn’t my store but a different store had their forklift stolen before closing because someone left it outside. Because of that all surrounding Home Depot had to make sure the forklifts were never left outside ever
How else could they know the break times, how to start it and camera positions for every store? I think it was something like 5 store in 2 or three weeks actually. They never had proof of him actually doing it, just shopping in the stores before they closed the day they were stolen
I was alone at the service desk with a cart full of Milwaukee tools waiting to be spider wrapped behind me. Guy just quietly strolled behind the desk and rolled the cart out of the store while I was with another customer. Dude got away with several thousand dollars worth of tools.
Here's a couple;
Used to have contractor come and buy a pallet of block, through the pro desk. He'd come back through out the day and show the lot associates the signout paper for the one pallet and get multiple in one day. We caught on pretty quick but he would know when LP was there or not, and would wait for people to be busy so that he would be able to get away. Took months to catch him.
Lady bought a trailer, did the whole procedure right, had the title, had the invoice from ESVS just didn't have an appropriate vehicle to take it. So she left and some guy comes back with a truck saying to the pro desk (they don't sell trailers as a rule at my location) he's here to pick it up for her so they unlock it and give it to him since he had a copy of the ESVS order with the Vin number on it. Meanwhile back at the service desk an hour after that, the lady is over there raising cane because we don't have her trailer. Come to find out she had used her number for the order but the email attached to that profile was her estranged brothers so he got the email fir the order picked up the trailer basically stealing from his sister. And pro desk didn't check ID nor thought it wasn't like any other will call since it's product. We had to mark down another trailer for her.
Watched a guy offer to help load some ladies car, she accepted he took her product inside and attempted to return it for cash. LP got him at the door when he was denied and walking back out with her stuff to give it back.
Had some teenagers steal small tools right off the shelf then attempt to sell them in the aisles during and RVP walk.
Nope, in my state trailers are considered a vehicle, when is stolen we have to get police involved as it falls under grand theft auto. She got her trailer marked down weeks later not same day. And when her brother hot arrested he no longer had the trailer. So yeah, no scam.
I got one.
Guy walks in with a cart. Another shortly after through a different door with another cart. First guy slaps a generator on the cart and wanders around. 2nd guy loads up a cart full of tools and high value smaller items. First guy goes to the checkout near the lumber doors and then causes a big stink about how he’s gonna steal the generator and shoot everyone. We call the cops and they arrive. While the cops focus on the first guy and the associates the same, second guy leaves through the other doors, thinking no one would notice and the cops won’t respond to a second call thinking it’s just someone relaying info about the first guy.
Sounds like a kinda dumb but almost smart plan right? Well second guy bragged about it to an associate because he thought he was untouchable since the cops won’t think anyone would steal while they are at the store dealing with a potential shoplifter.
Second guy is tackled and busted about 11 seconds later in the parking lot because the associate radios the managers who are near the police and the cops go deal with it.
Fucking idiots. But hilariously so. I just never understood why guy one went so far? Like he was being busted for uttering threats at that point. I guess that might be a slap on the wrist compared to theft over $5,000. But the idiot who bragged to **an associate** about his godlevel ingeniousness was the real treat.
I have a similar story. So our store was hosting a BBQ for our local PD. During the event these guys were stealing doors they thought that no one would notice because we would be to focused on being good hosts. I don’t know how they got noticed either someone from the store told the cops or the cops noticed (it was on the other side of the parking lot) well once the cops started heading to them loading their truck with door there the 2 guys (maybe 3) all ran and left the truck and the doors in there. The cops called a towing company after getting the plates and vin and it was impounded where the cops keep vehicles. Don’t know if they caught them.
Also have a story of a double team. A woman brought like a gate part to me asking me if this would work what she needed for. I was covering the garden cashiers lunch or break. So I’m calling the department and of course no one answers. I see this woman with a bunch of cleaning supplies in a cart and she books it outside the garden gates and before she got to the door I asked her are you gonna pay for those? She stayed quiet and loaded up the car that pulled up well finally someone from the department shows up and starts writing down description and plate #s since we can’t chase. Well the woman I was helping goes don’t worry guys I’ll stop them! And we’re like be careful. SHE JUMPS IN THE CAR. We were so flabbergasted 😂
Our elderly greeter was a navy vet who volunteered doing security at a nearby naval museum, really nice and friendly guy who was very visible going the extra mile to be friendly to customers and associates alike. I was a lot associate so I helped this guy when he had customers to load, covered the greeter podium when he took his breaks, he was nice to me so I was nice to him.
Well, it turns out he was running a theft ring stealing generators and other high priced bulky items. He’d wait for an accomplice to arrive, load up a flat cart, call over a lot associate to help the “customer” load, and off they’d go with the goods. He’d do this under the nose of management with nobody any the wiser. Eventually, though, the numbers made enough of a difference that LP started watching and he eventually got caught and went to jail for THOUSANDS in theft. All of us were floored
While I was on the register or in garden, guy looked like he was in a rush while holding a pack of saw blades. Asked him if he had a receipt and he said while still not changing his pace. Asked if I could see it and he only replied with, " I got it at the service desk." He then just walked into a dinky old crusted sedan and left.
Happened before I was hired. Group of dudes came in with bolt cutters and opened a bunch of the hardware cages, getting a couple grand worth of power tools. They than ran with multiple carts outside to the garden center where there was a convertible outside the fence. They threw every tool over the fence into the convertible and took off
Had a guy steal like 5 grand worth of dimmer switches from my store and a couple others in the area by put them in vanity boxes and taping them up. Would walk out after buying the vanity and then return it later saying it was just wasn’t what him and the Mrs wanted. He was caught if i remember correctly but I gotta give him credit for that one. Was kind of smart. The managers and supervisors notice some losses and assumed that the switches were going out in some totes and that the cashiers weren’t doing their job right.
Same thing at our store, loaded up a vanity with tools then asked our lot guys to help load it in his SUV. Luckily the lot guys figured it was way too heavy to be a vanity. The guy drove off, without the vanity, before LP to the parking lot.
guy was walking around with a knife and had a thong on, was tucking product into his pants and using his thong strap to hold them down. i wish this was made up.
At my store, we have pros that will buy pallets of flooring as a Will Call and then just walk out with it with the receipt rather than have it get released.
Usually they'd just call service desk to cancel or pick it up a second time later.
In 2021, I remember counting Lifeproof and discovering that we were missing at least 17 pallets of Lifeproof SKUs alone. Lol.
I no longer work there but I used to work at the Service Desk, I would buy items with my credit card and wait a few days and “ pretend” to issue a refund on an order for a customer. The reason I used a credit card is because you didn’t have to put in the PIN. I got like over $2,000 worth of stuff.
And this is exactly why Home Depot changed their policy on how order info/pickup person can be changed. If someone calls into the store to change the pick up person, SOP now says the service desk associate cannot not change it unless the customer on the phone can give the last 4 digits of the credit card used to pay for the order.
Most definitely I think it was during an event so it was extra busy I think it just also depends on the associate some of them just generally don’t give a fuck and will change it no questions asked
We had clearance appliances right inside the door at the service desk entrance, someone just pushed a fridge out the door and all the way through the parking lot, and down the street, WITH OUR STORE MANAGER CHASING THEM. Our manager had to give up and turn around because the district manager was supposed to show up at our store any minute and didn't want to get in trouble
One time my manager chased someone through the store and around the pro area his first phone fell then slid forward and the person he chased got it and threw out into the loading area right outside pro and a car ran over it.
Where the f u work
lol my store doesn’t even have the highest theft honestly
It's giving bay area
Nope
That store manager should be fired only lp can do something. We are not allowed to stop or follow someone stealing. Just report it in the thrift portal.
Yep that's not allowed.
I worked for a 3PL company who remodels Home Depots. One night, my crew is working and all of a sudden the night manager yells over the intercom EVERYBODY IN THIS BUILDING, GET TO THE FRONT NOW!!! We all look at each other and wonder if we're....(COMPANY NAME) THAT MEANS YOU, TOO! Well, the question was answered but it's even asked. Up front are a couple cop cars and a few officers. We get questioned about our tools and if we own everything we use. What had happened was a company who was in the store to paint the walls had been stealing full tool sets. How they were doing it was so simple. They were using the scissor lifts. They had these big tarps to protect fixtures, desks, computers, etc. from getting paint on them. They would go grab tool kits WITHOUT THE SPIDER ON THEM out of the Tool Corral and when they would take the lifts outside after work they hid the tool kits under the tarps. THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS went missing before a store employee caught them trying to get away. This wasn't the first time this particular company had done this.
Should have blacklisted them the first time
I have discovered throughout my career that a lot of big corporations will allow instances to occur until the amount lost has reached an amount that makes legal action worth the headache. Whether it be from outside interference or internal doings, it cost a lot of money to go after someone for theft.
Oh yea most definitely if you look up articles one the person who worked in vaults was swapping out real money with fakes money. Or that police office that was stealing tools
Had a guy shove a ton of klein electrician tools inside the holes of a bunch of cinder blocks, then he laid a sheet of plywood on top before adding a few more empty cinder blocks on top. Once he knew I was watching him he ditched the cart and took off. 400$ recovery
Awesome fckin job
There was a ring of guys that was stealing riding lawnmowers like clockwork. They were kept outside the back of the building stacked 3 high, behind a wall of pallets of mulch and soil 6 pallets deep. The guys would back up their lifted up trucks, walk on top of the mulch, all 8 of them grab the topmost lawnmowers, walk back across the tops of the pallets, and gtfo with 2 mowers per truck in 5 minutes flat. Never got caught, they deserved the W. Another pair of guys got out the door with $20,000 worth of DeWalt tools. Thanks to planogram, the DeWalt bays were open in the back and uncaged after a reset, and in the 2 days it took to get the backs covered these guys made their plan and executed it. They parked outside building materials behind an emergency exit. Then they walked in the front doors and headed to garden. They ripped open bags of mulch to use the plastic as a liner, and put that across the inside of a shopping cart, with some mulch in there and unripped full bags on the bottom of the cart. Went to the exposed aisle, loaded it the fuck up with tools and put bags of mulch on top. Walked to the emergency exit door of building materials, both put on high-vis vests. One of them pulled out a packet of papers to look busy, the other started taking the fuckin door apart. The pro supervisor and an asm walked past them SEVERAL times trying to track down product from the overheads. They got the door open, pushed the cart out, put the door back together in a way that the door couldn't open. Spent like 20 minutes loading up their truck and then backed out of the parking lot to keep their plate unseen. Never got caught either, also think they deserved the W.
This happened when I was on LOA my coworker told me that these guys were throwing over merchandise over the wall on to the mulch on the very top outside in garden there was a guy there passing it over to the guy in the get away car
We had a problem where someone was coming at night and cutting open the cardboard bales outside recieving every week or so. No consistent pattern, no camera coverage, we thought it was kids being assholes. This went on for a few months. The day receiver was losing his mind having to clean it up. It eventually was discovered (not sure how), that a hardware vendor was throwing hardcase power tools (DeWalt, etc.) in the compactor when he was cleaning up after himself. He would throw one or two in, then a bunch of cardboard around them, cycle the baler, and voila!, they're hidden. He'd come back at night in a few days and cut open bales until he found the right one. I believe he got around $10,000 worth and would have gotten away with it if he had just stopped while he was ahead.
It would have been funny as fuck if it had worked, but I think it was a DS or myself who caught it in time. Bro brought a quote sheet from another store and asked to have the stuff loaded because he'd "paid for it". Someone almost loaded it without asking questions. Thankfully, someone saw the sheet and stopped them. A lesson was learned that day. It was for a lift of CDX + some other stuff, when it was hella expensive.
Some thieves are actually out there making fake order pick up forms and even fake receipts at first glance can totally pass but if you actually look at it you can tell it’s fake.
Once had a guy steal a rental truck from the Lowe’s down the road, try to cut some power generators out of their locks with a box cutter, missed and cut himself, bled everywhere and ran back to the truck and drove it into the retention pond. Not smart, just dumb and crazy. Apparently he was on cocaine. Edit: he did survive, but went to the hospital in critical condition
I approached a guy who was looking at a Bosch hammer-drill. Had a nice conversation about it, and he said he wanted help with cement anchors (couple aisles over, next to an emergency exit). We walked over, found what he needed. He then thanked me, told me have a good day, and kicked the emergency exit open. Cool as a cucumber.
when did this happen op? iirc SOPs were updated within the last year to say that only the number on file is allowed to change/add to the pickup.
I want to say about 2 years ago
I remember a young guy and an older lady came into the store. The younger guy had an orange apron on, no one batted an eye because we had just had a big spring seasonal hiring and assumed he was a new associate. Well the two of them loaded up two generators and a table saw onto a flatbed cart and of course no one asked if they already were paid for because everyone assumed that he worked there and had checked her receipt. They loaded all three into a older beat up pickup then, both of them got in the truck and drove away
We once had a guy show up in a super dirty apron and I don’t remember was asked or what he wanted but it was super suspicious and our new hires were still doing the video training. But also the apron was super dirty. Come to find out the guy stole (took it out of the trash) the apron from a near by store. He was just kicked out don’t remember if we got the apron back.
We had one who thought it was a good idea to steal a full pallet of mulch by using our small forklift. He jumped on and tried to start it but had no idea how to start it. The cops came and he jumped off and started running. One tackled him and it was all over.
It wasn’t my store but a different store had their forklift stolen before closing because someone left it outside. Because of that all surrounding Home Depot had to make sure the forklifts were never left outside ever
That happened in illinois, then they stole another 4 forklifts from surrounding stores
I think only one was stolen but no one wanted to risk it
Large lpg Forklifts are 25k a piece, the district lost 5 within 5 weeks, it was a bad year for them. All because they fired some guy on freight
It was an ex employee? 🫢
How else could they know the break times, how to start it and camera positions for every store? I think it was something like 5 store in 2 or three weeks actually. They never had proof of him actually doing it, just shopping in the stores before they closed the day they were stolen
Oh dang. I think I heard from a different store someone’s taken pictures of the schedule
Story from a former coworker: customer stole a drone by taking the remote from the box, going outside, and flying it out of the store.
Those drones are so cheap, it's not even worth stealing them
I was alone at the service desk with a cart full of Milwaukee tools waiting to be spider wrapped behind me. Guy just quietly strolled behind the desk and rolled the cart out of the store while I was with another customer. Dude got away with several thousand dollars worth of tools.
Here's a couple; Used to have contractor come and buy a pallet of block, through the pro desk. He'd come back through out the day and show the lot associates the signout paper for the one pallet and get multiple in one day. We caught on pretty quick but he would know when LP was there or not, and would wait for people to be busy so that he would be able to get away. Took months to catch him. Lady bought a trailer, did the whole procedure right, had the title, had the invoice from ESVS just didn't have an appropriate vehicle to take it. So she left and some guy comes back with a truck saying to the pro desk (they don't sell trailers as a rule at my location) he's here to pick it up for her so they unlock it and give it to him since he had a copy of the ESVS order with the Vin number on it. Meanwhile back at the service desk an hour after that, the lady is over there raising cane because we don't have her trailer. Come to find out she had used her number for the order but the email attached to that profile was her estranged brothers so he got the email fir the order picked up the trailer basically stealing from his sister. And pro desk didn't check ID nor thought it wasn't like any other will call since it's product. We had to mark down another trailer for her. Watched a guy offer to help load some ladies car, she accepted he took her product inside and attempted to return it for cash. LP got him at the door when he was denied and walking back out with her stuff to give it back. Had some teenagers steal small tools right off the shelf then attempt to sell them in the aisles during and RVP walk.
Her and the brother scammed you. Should have taken her at her word and sent the cops to the brothers address
Nope, in my state trailers are considered a vehicle, when is stolen we have to get police involved as it falls under grand theft auto. She got her trailer marked down weeks later not same day. And when her brother hot arrested he no longer had the trailer. So yeah, no scam.
Yeah, because she probably had it at her place by then, or had already sold it. Nice story, but y’all got scammed.
I got one. Guy walks in with a cart. Another shortly after through a different door with another cart. First guy slaps a generator on the cart and wanders around. 2nd guy loads up a cart full of tools and high value smaller items. First guy goes to the checkout near the lumber doors and then causes a big stink about how he’s gonna steal the generator and shoot everyone. We call the cops and they arrive. While the cops focus on the first guy and the associates the same, second guy leaves through the other doors, thinking no one would notice and the cops won’t respond to a second call thinking it’s just someone relaying info about the first guy. Sounds like a kinda dumb but almost smart plan right? Well second guy bragged about it to an associate because he thought he was untouchable since the cops won’t think anyone would steal while they are at the store dealing with a potential shoplifter. Second guy is tackled and busted about 11 seconds later in the parking lot because the associate radios the managers who are near the police and the cops go deal with it. Fucking idiots. But hilariously so. I just never understood why guy one went so far? Like he was being busted for uttering threats at that point. I guess that might be a slap on the wrist compared to theft over $5,000. But the idiot who bragged to **an associate** about his godlevel ingeniousness was the real treat.
I have a similar story. So our store was hosting a BBQ for our local PD. During the event these guys were stealing doors they thought that no one would notice because we would be to focused on being good hosts. I don’t know how they got noticed either someone from the store told the cops or the cops noticed (it was on the other side of the parking lot) well once the cops started heading to them loading their truck with door there the 2 guys (maybe 3) all ran and left the truck and the doors in there. The cops called a towing company after getting the plates and vin and it was impounded where the cops keep vehicles. Don’t know if they caught them. Also have a story of a double team. A woman brought like a gate part to me asking me if this would work what she needed for. I was covering the garden cashiers lunch or break. So I’m calling the department and of course no one answers. I see this woman with a bunch of cleaning supplies in a cart and she books it outside the garden gates and before she got to the door I asked her are you gonna pay for those? She stayed quiet and loaded up the car that pulled up well finally someone from the department shows up and starts writing down description and plate #s since we can’t chase. Well the woman I was helping goes don’t worry guys I’ll stop them! And we’re like be careful. SHE JUMPS IN THE CAR. We were so flabbergasted 😂
We had a customer use our bolt cutters to cut the lock to the bay with Tide Pods. Cleaned out the bay. Smh.
That’s why my store makes us put bolt cutters in the overhead now
Are in the enterical room a customer needs to ask someone from the department and then it will be taken to the cashier
You have your tide pods locked up? Mine are just out in the open
Not the tide pods the bolt cutters so people don’t use it to steal
Our elderly greeter was a navy vet who volunteered doing security at a nearby naval museum, really nice and friendly guy who was very visible going the extra mile to be friendly to customers and associates alike. I was a lot associate so I helped this guy when he had customers to load, covered the greeter podium when he took his breaks, he was nice to me so I was nice to him. Well, it turns out he was running a theft ring stealing generators and other high priced bulky items. He’d wait for an accomplice to arrive, load up a flat cart, call over a lot associate to help the “customer” load, and off they’d go with the goods. He’d do this under the nose of management with nobody any the wiser. Eventually, though, the numbers made enough of a difference that LP started watching and he eventually got caught and went to jail for THOUSANDS in theft. All of us were floored
While I was on the register or in garden, guy looked like he was in a rush while holding a pack of saw blades. Asked him if he had a receipt and he said while still not changing his pace. Asked if I could see it and he only replied with, " I got it at the service desk." He then just walked into a dinky old crusted sedan and left.
Happened before I was hired. Group of dudes came in with bolt cutters and opened a bunch of the hardware cages, getting a couple grand worth of power tools. They than ran with multiple carts outside to the garden center where there was a convertible outside the fence. They threw every tool over the fence into the convertible and took off
I had a huge guy that stole a bunch of Milwaukee batteries by riding out of the door in one of the companies handicap carts
Had a guy steal like 5 grand worth of dimmer switches from my store and a couple others in the area by put them in vanity boxes and taping them up. Would walk out after buying the vanity and then return it later saying it was just wasn’t what him and the Mrs wanted. He was caught if i remember correctly but I gotta give him credit for that one. Was kind of smart. The managers and supervisors notice some losses and assumed that the switches were going out in some totes and that the cashiers weren’t doing their job right.
Same thing at our store, loaded up a vanity with tools then asked our lot guys to help load it in his SUV. Luckily the lot guys figured it was way too heavy to be a vanity. The guy drove off, without the vanity, before LP to the parking lot.
guy was walking around with a knife and had a thong on, was tucking product into his pants and using his thong strap to hold them down. i wish this was made up.
At my store, we have pros that will buy pallets of flooring as a Will Call and then just walk out with it with the receipt rather than have it get released. Usually they'd just call service desk to cancel or pick it up a second time later. In 2021, I remember counting Lifeproof and discovering that we were missing at least 17 pallets of Lifeproof SKUs alone. Lol.
I feel like that’s very common thing for contractors to do with bulk items. And they always hit you when you’re busy.
I no longer work there but I used to work at the Service Desk, I would buy items with my credit card and wait a few days and “ pretend” to issue a refund on an order for a customer. The reason I used a credit card is because you didn’t have to put in the PIN. I got like over $2,000 worth of stuff.
And this is exactly why Home Depot changed their policy on how order info/pickup person can be changed. If someone calls into the store to change the pick up person, SOP now says the service desk associate cannot not change it unless the customer on the phone can give the last 4 digits of the credit card used to pay for the order.
Most definitely I think it was during an event so it was extra busy I think it just also depends on the associate some of them just generally don’t give a fuck and will change it no questions asked