How sweet it is to catch a thief.

Sometimes getting burned makes the payoff that much sweeter.

But this story took some long-con planning.

Thieving manager tries to frame me for their theft – it doesn’t go well for them.

This story happened around 6 years ago, when I worked for a retail company I will call no-op.

Jay was well known to be a thief by the base staff and some of the lower levels of management. Unfortunately, she was a golden girl to Mo and Travis and we never had any solid proof; we also didn’t get pay docked etc unless it was over a certain amount (which it never was) so staff never had a real incentive to try and find proof.

One of Jay’s favourite things to steal were vouchers for money off products or shopping because you were just supposed to rip them up and put them in the safe, there was no official way of counting these to return them to the company so she could use them again in a different store and get away with it.

Cue up a holiday, when focus would be a bit all over the place. Enter: the thief.

This particular day was Halloween and I was on ’till 4′ – the only till with no cameras on it.

Mo came up and paid for her shopping with some gift vouchers she had received at a Store Manager’s meeting because the store was doing really well, I served her and no one else touched my till all day because I was the main person on the tills for this shift.

We closed up for the night and Jay took the registers to be cashed up, I went out to the pub with friends and had a good night not knowing what was coming.

I already have anxiety for that “please come to my office” request that we all know is coming.

The next shift I’m on, Mo calls me into the office and tells me that the vouchers she used were not in the safe and she knew that it was my till.

She wanted me to return the vouchers and would not press charges or put anything on my file if I just returned them immediately, I of course did not have them and testified as such but she didn’t believe me.

And so the hunt begins.

I went looking everywhere, the bin under till 4 and the bins outside, under the tills and on the floors around the tills – just in case I had dropped them or put them somewhere dumb while trying to sort out cash etc.

Roughly an hour later Jay comes in, hears what’s going on and offers to look as well.

She ‘finds’ them in 30 seconds flat, somewhere I had already looked.

I essentially hissed out, “what a coincidence that as soon as Jay looks there she finds it immediately, how coincidental”, seething with white fury as I knew she was now framing me for her own theft.

She could have ‘found’ them in the office and made it a simple mistake but no, she made me the fall guy for her own idiocy.

He then goes on the defensive, as surely they can’t believe this farce.

I tried to plead my case to Mo and Travis, stating that I wouldn’t be dumb enough to steal vouchers that I knew were Mo’s because I was the one who served her.

One of the other Team Leaders (Paul) knew fine and well it was Jay and tried to tell Mo and Travis that I was being set up, but… she was the golden girl and could do no wrong while my name was mud as far as they were concerned – heck, they thought Jay had caught me in the act.

You just know the heat is rising in this guy’s body. Ok, it’s on.

This meant war.

Over the next few months I got really friendly with Jay, flirting outrageously with her and basically pretending like I really respected her and that we were good buddies.

It took me a while to work my way into her trust, but once I was there I knew I could catch her stealing and prove it.

The payback idea is formed.

We wasted off a load of Christmas chocolate products that hadn’t sold and I put them in a bag to be put in the bin.

Jay said we should take them home (against company policy and seen as stealing) because they were just going to waste otherwise.

We were stood underneath a camera, just outside of it’s range so I said, “I don’t want any, but if you want them you can have them” and put them on a trolley just inside of the camera’s range.

I had studied the camera angles in great detail preparing for a moment exactly like this.

I saw her look at the camera, down at the trolley and back to the camera before walking off to get her stuff.

He kept the scene of the trap clean; no collateral damage.

I warned my colleagues not to take any of the chocolate even if offered and had an evil grin on my face which my colleagues commented on.

When Jay came down she nonchalantly picked up the bag as if it was her shopping, offered chocolate to everyone and walked out the door with it.

Gotcha.

Success! Now all that’s left was to present the evidence.

The next morning I arrived for my shift and put on the most sombre face possible as I approached Travis, “You should check the cameras on the back door at approximately 22:21, I think you’ll find what you see very interesting.”

He asked me to explain further and I looked over towards where Jay was (not even 5 metres away) and looked back, “I can’t go into further detail right now but I would strongly suggest you go and look at the cameras for that time now”

Then the Lad Assistant Manager, Travis, saw for his own eyes who the actual thief was.

Travis begrudgingly walked off to do just that and within 10 minutes Jay was called into the office and her bag was searched.

Within the hour she was suspended pending investigation and within the week she was fired and barred from the store.

These stories don’t always end as poetically as they sometimes should. But this one does.

I got a full apology from the managers who didn’t believe me, who explained they genuinely believed it was me and had no idea Jay could have possibly been a thief.

Their jaws hit the floor after I explained that every member of staff knew she was a thief but that we didn’t feel like we could do anything about it.

After going around asking people if this was true I got another apology.

Cut to the end credits scene.

Six months later I was offered training to become a Team Leader myself.

I took it but ended up quitting for a white-collar role in a different company before I finished my training.

A job well done. I definitely lived vicariously through this guy.

Let’s see what the Redditors think.

This commenter sees the big picture.

While another person chimed in maybe from the company itself?

One commenter wonders about the motives of the thief.

While this person said exactly what I was thinking.

Crime doesn’t pay, folks.

Especially when you’re setting up a co-worker to take the fall.

Want to read another story where somebody got satisfying revenge? Check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.