So Many Ways to Steal, And People Go With Toilet Parts

“Honestly, some people were coming out for a meal and going home with half a toilet. Bonkers!” That’s Jamie Oliver, quoted in the Guardian, talking about people nicking toilet parts from his chain of restaurants (apparently their hardware was quite fancy). The parts are now welded on, so problem solved. People also steal napkins. He blames it on the recession, but the more likely culprit is that the napkins say “JAMIE’S ITALIAN” and are real cute.

I wanted to find out how PREVALANT this kind of theft is … but then I got totally distracted by this INCREDIBLE LIST 0f 99 ways that employees steal from restaurants and bars.

Stealing napkins is all the way at the bottom (#91). Stealing toilet parts doesn’t even make the cut (innovation).

A few of my favorites:

“#34. Complimentary cocktail or wine coupons are stolen by maids and sold to bartenders who turn in the coupons to justify missing inventory. For example, the wine server buys a coupon for $5 and sells a bottle of wine to a customer for $25, reaping a net profit of $20.” LOL what. That is a HEADACHE. No.

“#30. Phantom bottle — bartender brings his or her own bottle of liquor and pockets the cash earned from its sale. This scheme is much more devastating than merely stealing a bottle of liquor because even though the cost of the bottle is nominal (for example, $10), the lost margin on sales from the bottle is significant (for example, $90).” I just like the word phantom.

“#5. Phantom cash register — put an extra cash register in the bar during specific times (for example, during happy hour) since the sales are not recorded on the master cash register tape they can be skimmed by the perpetrator.” I just really like the word phantom (also … “extra cash register” what?)