An IKEA employee who worked in a Baltimore-area call center has plead guilty to stealing almost $400,000 in less than a year. His motivation? “Pure greed,” according to his confession.
From the Daily Record:
Samaroo, of Middle River, was employed at the IKEA Direct in Rosedale, which handles phone and mail orders. Between September 2007 and August 2008, Samaroo gave himself refunds for purchases made by customers, Lippe said. He doled out the money to family and friends and bought himself a new car, a motorcycle and several crystal pieces, among other goods, Lippe said.
Kind of makes you wonder how he thought this movie was going to end. Ya know?
IKEA worker pleads guilty to stealing $400K [Daily Record via Inside Charm City]
(Photo: Meg Marco )
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Should have quit when he hit $350,000.00.
@Dansc29625: Win.
Due to the loss at Ikea they will now be forced to make their goods with 10% less particle board.
For his punishment, they should lock him in a room and make him put together IKEA entertainment systems all day. Would it kill you to put a few more instructions in the box IKEA?
@Dead Wrestlers Society: Or a Chest of Drawers. I nearly went crazy putting it together.
@Dead Wrestlers Society: I’ve put together desks, nightstands, and a dozen other things from IKEA with no trouble whatsoever. The only one is those bastard EXPEDIT bookshelves. The directions they send are actually counter to the laws of physics.
@EtoilePB: Oh, the EXPEDIT bookshelf. I still have nightmares. I thought I was the only one who couldn’t get it. That took me hours and it only worked after I realized that, indeed, the directions were physically impossible.
@Jester6641 & EtoilePB: The EXPEDIT bookshelf is actually a two-man job. It should have a little image of two people on the first page of instructions.
@jeebussez:
You can build it by yourself if you ignore the directions and build it vertically instead of lying on the floor and then flipping it upright. Also the use of a drill with an allen key attachment makes all Ikea building go about 100000% faster.
@Jester6641: me too! a few months later, i moved, took it apart, and failed to understand putting it together again. this time (as sad as it is) i took notes for next time–my own instructions.
@EtoilePB:
The laws of physics in _this_ universe.
@EtoilePB: I bought an EXPEDIT TV storage unit (very similar to the bookshelf) off Craigslist and had NO instructions. It took me about an hour to put it together and I’m betting it went faster than it would have if I had had the instructions because I had to deal with it logically, not insane IKEA style.
@Dead Wrestlers Society: Punishment for some, a good job for others.
Beyond the folks who work at Ikea putting the stuff together, there are companies out there that all they do is build RTA furniture at your place.
@Dead Wrestlers Society: It’s all part of the IKEA master plan…have the furniture go out of warranty before you can figure out how to put it together.
@Dead Wrestlers Society: And he should only be allowed to use the dinky Allen wrench that comes with the flat pack.
No meatballs for you!
I’m wondering if they were actually _pieces_ of crystal or if it was all chopped up.
@Rey: I prefer my crystal minced.
He bought motorcycles and crystal items?
He could have bought a lovely glass Snoorgen or a Fleeglsnert right at Ikea and stretched his stolen dollars even further!
I hope his jail cell is comfortably furnished with a Jurgen Gleggen comforter and matching pillows.
This post courtesty of the Ikea Random Fake Swedish Name Generator (TM)
@SkokieGuy: Every time my friend gets her copy of the Ikea catalogue, I go through it and make up fake Swedish-sounding names for the products she says she likes. She says laughing at it helps curb her desire to paw through it and buy tons of things.
‘What’s that? You want the HeusenHeisenHeusenJorgenFargin desk?’
@JulesNoctambule: Sounds like Willy Wonka names some of that stuff.
@jdhuck: I imagine the employees getting drunk, then randomly arranging Scrabble tiles to decide the names.
@Wormfather is Wormfather: Did they give you a bonus? A reward? 5% of the amount of fraud you discovered would have been very congratulatory.
@SkokieGuy:
I call my son Tromso. His real name is Christopher, but whenever we’re in Ikea, his name becomes Tromso. It should be noted that his speech might as well be Swedish considering how little of it I understand. Granted, he’s only 1, but it’s time to move on to complex sentences.
Ikea has also removed Mr. Samaroo’s Sweedish Meatball priveliges, a fate some observers have deemed “cruel and unusual”.
“Give him the death penalty” a co-worker said, “but don’t take away his meatballs.”
One of my jobs here at (redacted) is to investigate potential fraud. One of our managers managed to steal about $200K over 18 months doing the exact same thing, just picked orders out of the system and refunded her debit card.
My two bosses congratulated the crap out of me for nailing her to the wall…I couldnt help but feel shitty that I didnt catch her eariler.
@Wormfather is Wormfather: “I have eight bosses, Bob”
@Wormfather is Wormfather: For some reason when I read that last sentence, the words “From the windows, to the walls” ran through my head.
@Wormfather is Wormfather: I just don’t understand why these people think they can connive and get away with these actions. If they studied accounting they should know that they would eventually get caught. Don’t feel shitty about what you did. It was ethical. See if your bosses taught more people how to become wealthy like them then they wouldn’t have to worry about these actions from their employees. Why give people fish when you should show them how to fish? Right? Wake Up Generation X!!! We must not underestimate our power.
@Wormfather is Wormfather: So how much are you taking out of the pie then?
@Wormfather is Wormfather: Lesson learned: your managers give more recognition for “curing” problems than for “preventing” them. Don’t ignore the ones that you catch early, but recognize that the pat on the back that you get for landing the “big fish” that operated under your radar for months at a time is the legitimate reward for all of the scum you caught quickly.
Okay, but what about the oat crisp cookies that come in the cardboard with the cellophane wrapper?
I have eaten an entire box in one day. It is clearly Swedish Crack.
@SkokieGuy: Those and the ginger ones. mmmmmmmmmmmmm
@SkokieGuy:
Those aren’t cookies. They’re spacers for a Fjllorgl.
@SkokieGuy: Yes, those things are Swedish crack. I mean “Krakkenkook.”
Does Ikea have a name for this kind of occurrence? Like a Stolski or something?
@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy->★: Lol, cheesy… but made me laugh. I needed that today. *Grin*
@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy->★: Yeah, apparently it’s the Samaroo … pretty catchy! The ole Samaroo!
@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy->★:
Stolski… Sounds like a Russian Vodka.
@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy->★: Stolski sounds Polish!
Does this mean Ikea’s going to be asking for a bailout, too?
@karmaghost: Even though Ikea and the automakers make different products of the same “quality” that does not justify a bailout. Besides they don’t produce anything in this country but then again… who does these days anyway.
@Mikestan: Besides they don’t produce anything in this country but then again… who does these days anyway.
Ironically, foreign car companies: Honda has several plants here that are humming along just fine — one was the subject of a recent feature article on the auto industry bailout; BMW has a plant in North Carolina; Toyota has several plants.
@howie_in_az: Besides they don’t produce anything in this country but then again…
Reference to Ikea above
Is it true that foreign companies do produce in this country? Yes. Is their entire line produced solely in this country, I wouldn’t bet on it. Do the foreign car companies employ Americans to do their white collar work for them (i.e. research, engineering, administration)? Nope, all those jobs stay at their home countries.
BTW foreign car companies announced cut backs today at their plants in the U.S.
@howie_in_az: Not to nitpick, but BMW’s plant is in Greer, South Carolina. (The local’s pronounce the town name as “Grr”….)
Give me Lingonberries or give me death!
@chipslave:
I’ll take death for $200, Alex.
@chipslave: I believe the actual phrase is “cake or death?”
@audiochick: “You said death!”
“Butbut… I meant cake!”
I’ll bet the alarm got raised when someone actually tried to return one of the items Mr. Suraj had “returned”, and was told he had already gotten a refund for it…
He must have learned money laundering skills from those dudes in “Office Space”. Watch your cornhole, man.
Actually this guy is a friend of my boyfriend and he was only caught because his bank flagged his account due to suspicious activity. They’re the ones that started this whole ball rolling.
Yes, folks. That means that Ikea was utterly clueless about this and didn’t have internal controls or reports to catch this sort of thing. ALMOST makes me feel bad for him, but he never did buy us anything.
It does make me wonder how he discovered this “loophole” in Ikea’s internal systems. Maybe he was shown by someone else?
Damn, wish I had thought of it first. Too late now, the jig is up.
pigs get fat , while hogs get slaughtered.
That’s alls I gotsta say!
@forgottenpassword: That’s why I only take fractions of a penny.
@howie_in_az:
ala superman & office space?
bought himself a new car, a motorcycle and several crystal pieces, among other goods
several crystal pieces? as in what, Swarovski?
Way to spend the loot.
Use it for down payments on several properties or something, start a new business or something.
@genterara: Well, he already had the “business” thing going, but I agree – buy up real estate while no one else can. Put relatives’ names on the deeds and once you’re out of jail, you’re still a millionaire. Dang, nothing worse than being a half-smart thief.
@genterara: Nobody ever accused criminals of being smart.
Imagine that…
@squidbrain: Well, that seems pretty cut and dried, doesn’t it?
This is why most stores require a store manager to approve any refunds, and often require you fill out a questionaire with your name, address, phone number and often DL number.
@Hitchcock: This wasn’t a store, but a center that handled mail and phone orders, so there prolly wasn’t a store manager.
I hope the car and motorcycle he bought where all American made.
@Mikestan: were*
My favorite IKEA name story is about the mirror Adama uses for shaving in Battlestar Galactica.
It is, of course, the Frak.
So…I think people should be allowed to torture this guy by sending him poorly written and confusing escape plans with pictures that don’t make any sense.
Additionally, maybe send him a put-it-together-yourself catapult kit. He won’t find out there’s a piece missing until 6 months later.
Ah, those crazy Swedes. Cheap furniture and expensive cars.
It leads one to wonder if the guy planned on buying a Volvo with some of the stolen money. Keeping it in the family, so to speak.
Crystal meth, perhaps?
When I was young and stupid I stole petty cash from my employer…it was a retail service job, and I learned that if the customer didn’t want a receipt, there would be no other record of the transaction, so I developed a system to pocket the occassional sale. Of course it was wrong, but it was wrong on the order of, oh, maybe $200 over the course of a year. But 400k?! Yeah, employers tend to notice stuff like that.