IKEA Employee Steals $400,000 In Less Than A Year
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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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?
No meatballs for you!
I'm wondering if they were actually _pieces_ of crystal or if it was all chopped up.
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)
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.
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.
Does Ikea have a name for this kind of occurrence? Like a Stolski or something?
Does this mean Ikea's going to be asking for a bailout, too?
Give me Lingonberries or give me death!
@Wormfather is Wormfather: For some reason when I read that last sentence, the words "From the windows, to the walls" ran through my head.
@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?'
@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy->★: Yeah, apparently it's the Samaroo ... pretty catchy! The ole Samaroo!
@Wormfather is Wormfather: Did they give you a bonus? A reward? 5% of the amount of fraud you discovered would have been very congratulatory.
@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.
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...
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.
@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.
@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.
@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.
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.
@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.
pigs get fat , while hogs get slaughtered.
That's alls I gotsta say!
@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.
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.
His motivation? "Pure greed," according to his confession.
Imagine that...
@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.
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.
I hope the car and motorcycle he bought where all American made.
@Hitchcock: This wasn't a store, but a center that handled mail and phone orders, so there prolly wasn't a store manager.
@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.
Should have quit when he hit $350,000.00.