So this guy waltzes into a Wal-Mart, dressed as a Wal-Mart employee, goes everywhere such an employee might go, then emerges on the floor in view of all the 500 cameras the average Wal-Mart has around the store.

What are the chances he made a large cash deposit into his checking account the same day?

$200k in cash is an awful lot of cash to keep on hand. I used to have to verify cash counts for another major big box retailer and the cash totals rarely topped $25k for a full day (thanks to credit card, check, etc)... If you're turning that much cash, you need multiple daily pickups to limit your exposure.

Definitely an inside job - the badge, key, combination... assuming the last two were unique to that store, my guess is that only a handful of managers would have that info.

Well played Clerks. Well played.

A three color badge with a last name printed in stock font is virtually impossible to fake. I think he was a time traveler - an employee who will be an assistant manger by 2025 who came back in time and told his current self how to break into the safe, and also who will win the World Series this year.

@fantomesq:

It's hard to tell without more information. Wal-Mart runs a pretty sophisticated operation, and I'm sure cash management is one of them. Cash sitting in a safe isn't earning interest.

It could have been around the July 4th holiday when there's more cash floating around than normal. Also, Wal-Mart offers in-store financial services (e.g., check cashing) so maybe they keep more cash on hand for that reason.

Who knows.

@hegemonyhog: He's only done this once before.

It's not uncommon for a Wal-Mart to have that amount of cash on a weekend. Stores will order extra cash from the armored company to cover check cashing services (heaviest Thursday-Sunday). The guy would have had to had help from the inside to get the safe combination, but the cash office door probably had a 5-button lock.

Getting a 10-year badge is about as easy to get as ordering a Big Mac.

@fantomesq: I'm thinking it was a manager or former manager from another store in order to have this type of information, which would explain why no one recognized the guy, perhaps a manager who was fired from another store taking revenge on the company. Either that or a close friend of a manager of a walmart store.

Whenever I worked at a store you had to hand in your vest and name tag when leaving if you were let go or decided to quit, but it might be different for managers, and I am assuming all you would have to do is say you "lost" your name tag in order to get another one.

@fantomesq: Depends, that would only be the case if that were their regular take maybe. I can see it just being absurdly busy a single day and it might not make sense to call up brinks to send a vehicle around mid-day while not on normal routing. Where I worked, cash got picked up once a day. On the other hand, EVERYONE in the store knows exactly who all the managers are, so it's unlikely someone would be able to walk out the door with all the cash like this.

I worked for another big-box retailer in loss prevention several years ago. Perhaps our cash control systems were more sophisticated, but each manager who had access to the cash office had a different access code. While a key could be used to gain entry, they could be written up for doing so. Each person with access also had their own combination to the safe. We would have been able to tell who gave that person access pretty quickly. It sounds like a lot of things broke at this Wal*Mart.

@zacox: He seems moderately intelligent so I don't think he would make such an amateurish mistake as that.

The thief's name is Hiro Nakamura. He's from the future.

[code]had the proper combinations to open office doors and the store's safe[/code]

I'm guessing 1234.

@ecwis: Most cameras in department stores are dummies from what a friend in security told me. The high theft areas such as cosmetics and electronics have them, and sometimes the cash registers and definitely the accounting office would.

It's weird that no one questioned a lowly ass. manager coming in and out of the accounting office though. The wally world I worked at it had extremely tight restrictions on who was allowed in, and most management did not have access from what I saw. Plus if you needed your cash drawer back they slid it through this little slow drawer rather than risking opening the door.

ok here is the screenplay on how it was done based on providing doubt to a jury.

2 disgruntled walmart employees planned it.
one inside the store. one working far away or even in another state.

they dummy up a badge with a fake name, employee number, position and number of years of service so that the caught employee can say that's not me in any way.

the inside man makes sure he is somewhere with lots of witnesses or even one unimpeachable witness -get pulled over for speeding and bring the cop in to the trial-.
the actual robber dyes his hear, puts on a fake mole or ugly teeth and color contacts and maybe adds lifts to his shoes. again the caught employee can say that doesn't fit my description.

now the hard parts... believing your partner when he says you only got x from the safe and not the lie that walmart and the police put out about 200k.
not going on a spending spree and attracting attention to yourself for at least a year.
hiding the money -no banks or new safe deposit boxes or digging a hole in your yard-
keeping your mouth shut and not telling some hot girl you did the job to get into her pants.
making sure you paid cash for all your supplies including the phones you communicated on, contacts, lifts, teeth, etc and let sufficient time pass between purchase and use so the store video has been erased -at least a month- and then destroyed them and securely wiped your computer so the dummy id cannot be retrieved.

harder or not as hard as it seems depending on your view.

@Ronin-Democrat:

Thorough,logical and relevant.

Ya been thinking about this for the past few years haven't ya?

@Outrun1986: Anytime we had a store-level manager leave our employ, we would get new combinations for the safe and the front doors. If multiple stores use the same combinations and keys then this was a disaster waiting to happen. There is no way that he should have been able to have gotten from the front door to the cash office and back to the front door with boxes of cash without being challenged... but I guess thats why you hire seasoned (and commissioned) loss prevention rather than minimum wage door checkers. Even a store manager could not waive himself past loss prevention... Its inexcusably sloppy loss prevention work.

@Ronin-Democrat: Their badges aren't even that complicated...all the same plain plastic, with stick-on letters for the name. You could take any employee's and make it yours in minutes.

@Yurei: You can bet this Wal-Mart (and probably most, now) requires three forms of ID, list of references, voice analysis and retinal scan just to enter the inner sanctum. They won't be caught unaware again.

Are Wal-Mart safes made in China?

@obamaramallama:

Needs Leonardo Leonardo's slow hand clap to get the full effect. (Then again, I use this line at the office all the time...)

@MattSaintCool:

Yeah. That couldn't happen. No one could get an old plastic badge printer, hook it up to a machine with a graphics package, and download the various logos from the walmart site. Couldn't happen.

Ok, I just read the linked article from the Orlando Sentinel, and apparently the thief was wearing black knit gloves in July in FLORIDA. Um, whaaaat? Did nobody see this while it was happening and think of it as strange?

@plumenoir: Can this receipt checker kill the Grimace?

@boobaloob: I know, right? There's a sacker at a grocery store I frequent who always wears beige knit gloves, I assume due to allergies, and it's very noticeable. I'll bet at least one person noticed and just didn't care.

the password:

1 2 3 4 5 6

I am very impressed with this robbery. You don't see this kind of planning and forethought in some of the house robberies, but this took timing intelligence and planning. I applaud this man for it, now on the flip side I do not support stealing even if it is Walmart and he should do his time, but still I am impressed.

@Jesse: @skubisnack624: @fantomesq

lol. I guess this is what walmart gets for down sizing the number of cash office associates a few years ago. The office used to be staffed 24/7, now there are several hours a day the office is empty. Also managers and cash office associates come and go, but its been my experiance that the combo's and keys are never changed.

@StanTheManDean: Or he read or saw any number of regular Joe nearly pulls of a heist of epic proportions stories.

Let's hope this one doesn't go all Simple Plan on everyone.

@zacox:
I'm sure he would've, but somehow because it is WalMart, the money ended up being direct deposited in a prepaid Visa card. After Visa took out their fees, he had enough to pay for gas back to try to rob the store again.

Maybe because half of their greeters are retarded

I think it's great. One of the largest businesses ever, they are going to get robbed sometime. And big too.

@endless: Sadly, he's probably right.

@GitEmSteveDave_Worked4TheWeekend:

NOTHING CAN KILL THE GRIMACE!!!

@Stephmo:

Bettin that he has been thinkin about this one for a while.

I'm not buying any of this. Inside job - had to be.

The only one who didn't know was the receipt checker.

I wondered if heads rolled after that?

So Walmart's cameras are good enough to determine which employees are meeting together to talk about setting up unions, but not good enough to determine the person who robbed the place?

@starrion: Occam's razor. Don't overcomplicate this with "machines" and "packages." Time travel is the most sensible option here, and you know it.

@Al Swearengen: Cheap plastic cameras made in China. 30% fail rate.

@Jerkamie:
You've determined that how?

Also, I'm so sick of people using the word "retarded" in that context. It's offensive and stupid.

@dako81:
Because you don't like a business it's okay for someone to rob it? Lovely.

@Ronin-Democrat:
I'll make a few additions to your scenario, which is pretty good.

1. That store has poor cash controls & probably an older, outmoded safe.
2. The guy who actually took the money is a close relative of a manager at the store.
His relative trained him how to do it. He probably isn't even from Florida.
The planner & the actual thief are definitely not the same person. That's why store employees don't recognize him. The Sentinel article mentions he has an ankh tattoo on him. I wonder if it was real or a fake tattoo.
3. The planner was either a current employee, one that just transferred out of that store to another one or one that retired.
4. The planner might not have to hide for long. My thinking is that he [or she] is dying & wanted to get revenge on Walmart.
5. This was all inspired by "Strangers On A Train".
6. They may figure out who planned it, but unless there are phone records, the cops have nothing. Considering how well planned it was, I'll bet both the planner & the thief used throw away cellphones for all talks that weren't in person. If the planner has died, they'll never figure it out.

This robbery was brilliantly planned & carried out!

It doesn't matter how many years or service that "manager" the door associate is still supposed to check all boxes and bags whenever an employee leaves.

@fantomesq: Current manager at another WalMart that used the same combinations and keys?

@zjgz: either that or it had not been changed in a while and it was obvious based on the wear marks on the locks which narrowed down the possible combinations.

@Rachacha:

Actually, it was 12345.

...the kind of combination an idiot has on his luggage.

@fantomesq: Agreed there usually isn't that much cash unless its a holiday like after thanksgiving or something. When I worked there 4 years ago it used to be 25 - 50 k kept on hand. My best friend at the time worked loss prevention and told me.

@mrsultana: +200,000 internets to you.