For the third time this year, prosecutors have accused an owner of a New York-area Papa John’s pizza franchise of not paying employees minimum wage and overtime. This time, the franchise owner is accused of not only failing to pay his workers properly, but devising a scheme to carry out the non-payment through falsified tax documents. Now, he and his company are not only facing more than $500,000 in payments to employees and fines, but jail time. [More]
theft
Papa John’s Franchise Owner Faces Jail Time, $500,000 In Back Pay & Penalties For Skirting Wage Laws
By 7.15.15
Report: TSA Paid Out $3M In The Last 5 Years For Lost, Stolen And Damaged Baggage
By 7.2.15
If you’ve ever had your checked luggage stolen, damaged, lost or otherwise mishandled while flying, you probably know you’re not alone. But what you might not know is how often the Transportation Security Administration actually admits wrongdoing and compensates unhappy travelers in those cases. Enlightenment is here: A new report says the TSA has forked over about $3 million in the last five years for such claims. [More]
Walmart Cracking Down On Theft Because It Doesn’t Want To Lose Billions Of Dollars A Year
By 6.5.15
When something is costing billions of dollars a year in lost revenue, you’re probably going to start paying attention and try to stop the leakage. That’s why Walmart is addressing a big problem at its 4,555 stores in the U.S. — shoplifting and other forms of “unknown shrinkage” that is causing the company to lose about $3 billion per year. [More]
American Airlines Passenger Accused Of Stealing From Crew Member, Fellow Traveler Mid-Flight
By 4.30.15
While you might expect a pickpocket working amid a large crowd of people, it’s not the norm to worry about your possessions getting swiped mid-air. Law enforcement authorities say an American Airlines passenger flying from Los Angeles to New York yesterday has been accused of stealing from not only a fellow traveler onboard the flight, but a crew member as well. [More]
Police: Thief Spent 15 Minutes Dragging Cooler Full Of Stolen Ice Cream Past Napping Gas Station Clerk
By 4.24.15
There’s being asleep on the job, and then there’s napping so hard that you apparently don’t notice someone hauling an ice cream cooler past your nose in a 15-minute effort. Police in Florida say a thief managed to drag a cooler filled with Good Humor products out of a gas station store while the clerk snoozed, taking a moment to flip the bird at the security camera. [More]
Long-Time Walmart Employee Charged With Stealing $240K From Store Over Two-Year Period
By 4.16.15
Occasionally, Consumerist reports on some less than perfect Walmart employees: the man arrested for stealing cash from a customer and food from the company’s deli, or the woman who allegedly stole $10,000 in cash and gift cards while working as a cashier. While those incidents are indeed bad, they pale in comparison to a long-time employee of the nation’s largest retailer who allegedly stole nearly $250,000 from her employer. [More]
Family Finds Their Vacation Home Has Been Swiped Right Off Its Foundation
By 4.9.15
UPDATE: Authorities say they’ve found the missing cabin, and believe that whoever took it was living inside. [More]
iPhone Owner Watching Thief’s Selfies Post To Her Facebook Account
By 3.27.15
Vanity, thy name is smartphone thief: We’re no strangers to the tale of the narcissistic villain who’s ultimately caught after uploading photos taken on the pilfered phones somewhere the owner can see them. That’s the ending one iPhone owner is hoping for, as she’s been watching the person who stole her device unwittingly send them straight to the owner’s Facebook account. [More]
Someone Stole More Than 200 Hens That Lay Pastel-Colored Eggs
By 3.26.15
Dyeing Easter eggs is a long-held family fun tradition, but it’s one that can be quite messy. That’s likely one of the reasons why the pastel-colored eggs laid by a specific type of hen have gained popularity in recent years. Now, a California farmer is wondering if his unusual eggs have become popular enough to be the target of thieves after finding 200 of his best egg-laying hens missing. [More]
FTC Orders Company That Swindled Tens Of Millions From Seniors To Pay $10M Judgment
By 3.12.15
We’ve said it too many times to count at this point, but scammers who take advantage of senior citizens are the worst. Today, the Federal Trade Commission made sure there was one less scammer out there by permanently barring the mastermind behind a multi-million dollar fraud from all future telemarketing activities. [More]
Police Officer Chases Shoplifting Suspect Into River, Then Rescues Him
By 3.11.15
Back in July, we shared the tragic story of a man being pursued for shoplifting from a mall in Maryland who hid in a drainage pond and drowned. A shoplifter in New Hampshire was saved from a similar fate by a police officer who is also a veteran of the Marines…but she was also the officer who pursued him to the river. [More]
Ex-Cop Battles Starbucks Tip Jar Thief, Saves The Day And $4
By 3.9.15
When is it worthwhile to intervene when you see a crime happening? That was the question raised recently in Orange County, California, when two men resorted to violence over a Starbucks tip jar containing only a few bucks. One was an ex-cop who was buying a drink at Starbucks, and the other a bike-riding thief. [More]
‘Microsoft Tech Support’ Phone Scammer Threatens To Cut Man Into Little Pieces & Throw Them Into River
By 3.4.15
We already know that scammers use a variety of unsavory tactics when trying to take advantage of consumers; from impersonating federal agents to threatening jail time. But an alleged fraudster of the so-called “Microsoft Tech Support” scam took things to a decidedly nastier level when his hustle began to unravel. [More]
Man Finds His Missing Log Cabin 3,750 Feet From Where He Last Saw It
By 2.27.15
Though sometimes it feels like your keys, wallet or phone can just go walking away from where you left them, a man in Oregon was shocked this week to first find that his log cabin had been stolen, and then to find that it had somehow wandered 3,750 feet away from its original resting place. [More]
Man Arrested For Stealing $300 Cash From Girl Scout Cookie Booth
By 2.23.15
It’s that time of year again, when groups of youngsters camp out in front of retailers and the occasional medical marijuana dispensary to sell Girl Scout cookies. Most of us look at their displays and see delicious but pricey temptation. Some terrible people see a box full of money guarded by a few little girls. [More]
Police Seek Man Caught On Security Camera Stealing Security Camera
By 2.13.15
Here’s the thing with surveillance cameras: the video that they capture usually goes somewhere. Somewhere else. We don’t know whether the men who were caught on camera removing the very camera that caught them thought that they were destroying the evidence by stealing the cameras, but removing a camera does provide a nice, up-close view of the person removing it. [More]
If You Plan To Steal $10,000 From Your Job, Don’t Use Your Employee Info For Transactions
By 12.12.14
Several months ago Consumerist reported on what might have been Walmart’s worst employee: a worker arrested for stealing cash from a customer and food from the company’s deli. While that incident was indeed bad, a Tennessee employee who allegedly stole thousands of dollars in gift cards and cash by using her employee information might just take over the title. [More]
FCC Releases Massive Study On Mobile Phone Theft, Asks Wireless Companies To Start Making Changes
By 12.5.14
Smartphones are amazingly convenient: tiny little hand-sized computers that make it easy to organize our lives on the go. They’re also amazingly good targets for theft: tiny, portable, expensive, and full of personal information. Mobile device theft is on the rise, just as mobile devices are, and the FCC has been trying to find ways to protect consumers when their devices get yanked from their hands. [More]
