To catch a thief ... restaurant pilferage ....

[Gifted Gourmet]

Observer UK article

yes, Sarah Roe, in my experience, and on the basis of your own description, you look (and act) precisely like the kind of woman who would steal a spoon from a fashionable restaurant. Fabulous clothes, a big old salary, a general sense of entitlement engendered by a glossy lifestyle and a spectacular expenses account: check, check and check again on the profile of your average flash restaurant accoutrement thief! And while I have no doubt that - as you insist - you're innocent of the crime, you should know that Celine is no kind of defence, lady. In fact, quite the opposite.

good article!

If you are, or have ever been, in the restaurant business, and this is more than just a little likely on eGullet, what is your take on people who are nattily attired and obviously able to purchase their own dining accoutrements, pilfering restaurant items?

What are they making off with?

How do you handle it?

Have you ever noticed, as a diner in a fine establishment, someone pilfering something from their table?

As to whether you yourself might have indulged in this practice, that shall remain confidential .. we are, after all, a discreet organization ...

[Gifted Gourmet]

Is everyone out there in some sort of Witness Protection Program??

Officially, eGullet does not allow the use of hidden cameras, folks ... no confessions extracted without the express permission of the victim ... er, poster ...

[Dr. Funk]

The ones that really get me are the wives who pick up the tip their husband left or the tip off the next table. I've seen this so many times, especially in good restaurants - you'll never see it in a greasy spoon, that I've given up bringing it to anybody's attention unless it's the aggrieved party.

[irodguy]

I have seen pilferage close up both from customers and obviously on the back end.

I had a close up and personal experience as a customer. I was out with some friends of mine and his father. The restaurant boxed up the left overs and my friend mentioned to his father that they had just moved into the new house and none of the condiments were unboxed. Basically the kitchen was still in boxes. They had not stocked their fridge yet, which is one of the reasons we all went out to dinner.

So the father asked the waiter for extra butter which he snuck into the box along with the ramekin. Then he took the Salt, Pepper & Several pieces of serving ware. I was so astonished that I did not even say anything.

I asked my friend later if his father was always like that (future not don't invite his father to dinner @ my house )

[mark918]

I knew a guy in college who took barstools. He had a collection of eight from eight different bars when I knew him. At the time it was a hoot, but in retrospect, I feel really ... Aw heck, I still think it's funny.

[Gifted Gourmet]

even though this topic is about restaurant pilferage specifically, I happen to have an entire set of towels from the Drake Hotel in Chicago where my late father-in-law visited for the annual Furniture Show ...

One day, when my daughter first learned to read, she looked at me, eyes wide open, and innocently asked, "Mom is our last name Drake??"

Forgive me for my digression .. simply irresistable, thanks Robert Palmer! ... back to pilferage in restaurants ... carry on!

[glenn]

Nothing compares to the mass, um, misappropriations that go in the back of the house.

However, the person who stole a 25 pound plus pumpkin that was on display near the hostess stand a few Halloweens ago comes close. It was on a busy Saturday night and everyone was too busy to notice until the manager noted that "something" seemed awry.

[LaurieB]

I worked for a very upscale restaurant with a very wealthy clientele. Three things routinely pilfered were:

Salt & pepper shakers

Toilet paper ( )

Flowers out of the bud vases on the tables

Someone also once tried to walk out with the entranceway centerpiece, which weighed about 80 pounds.

[Mayhaw Man]

Back end theft, to me, is a much more serious problem.

Years ago I was a kitchen manager in a very large seafood restaurant in South LA (300 plus seats) and we bought seafood by the multiple tons. The dishwashers had a scam going where they would go into the fresh or the thaw coolers and swipe a box of whatever (crabmeat, whole fish, rib racks, etc.) and just heave it into the garbage. They would then go into the dumpster (this thing was one of those huge crusher things) and dig it out. We were losing thousands of dollars a week like this and could not quite get a hndle on who the individuals were who were doing it. I installed a couple of small small video cameras connected to a video tape rig and a monitor. A couple of nights of sitting in the office gave me an exact list of who was doing what and when I did the next week's schedule, I shceduled all of the culprits on the same night, along with a new group of dish trainees. In mid shift, the East BR Parish Sherriff's Dept. showed up and quietly arrested them all. This solved the problem. THe funniest part was watching all of the guys on the line panic when the sheriff showed up. I think that they were all instantly convinced that the Sheriff's Dept was there to get them for smoking dope at work. Bug eyes everywhere.

I operated a brewpub for a while that had very nice, real, imperial pints with our logos on them. It was nice glassware and at the time very hard to get and replace. Customers were constantly heisting them. We finally gave up and started making them available in the gift shop for a very minimal cost (in fact, if I remember correctly, they were actually below cost and we made up the difference by throwing the loss into advertising). This cut the theft down to a minimal amount aa it turns out the same people who were stealing them were willing to pay for them if they could get a bargain. I guess it helped them to complete their set.

[Carrot Top]

In agreement with Mayhaw Man that the major costs to the businesses and the major instances of theft within restaurants are from people within the business itself...from food that walks out the door...to smallwares that go home with people...to cash or credit card manipulations... and special vendor dealings and specialty accounting practices. It is so common that I am surpised to learn it is not actually taught in culinary/hospitality industry schools...

[StudentChefEclipse]

Actually, at school we had a six week course on management, and part of the course covered theft and its cost to businesses.

My theory is, anyone caught stealing goes out the door and is prosecuted to the fullest extent. (I am most conservative on issues of law and order. It scares me sometimes. EEPP!)

And I have been known to blow the whistle on people I see nicking the s&p or anything else from restaurants.

Now, having said that, at point in school we had so many people learning to butcher meat that our instructors just said for us to pack it up and bring it home. It was a violation of policy, but the other choice was to let it rot. Most of the kids who were working minimum wage jobs as well as going to school were able to keep body and soul together with this violation. So, it can be a mixed bag, I guess.

Complications.

[Carrot Top]

Actually, StudentChefEclipse...I was being my usual sarcastic self and hinting that somehow the schools must be teaching people how to do this stuff... for the scams I've seen and heard of are not only rampant but incredibly detailed and intelligent. Always surprises me that people that are capable of thinking up these things and then implementing them are sometimes not doing too well in the actual tasks their jobs require...but then again...all that energy and intelligence is being used to think of the next scam...

[msphoebe]

A few years back, the teenaged son of a friend of mine worked in the kitchen of a local steakhouse/saloon. Several nights a week, said teenager would come home with numerous strip steaks, etc. that he'd stolen from the business. Now I see said teenager is all grown up and "owns" his own restaurant here in town. It appears, at this time, he is the only cook in the kitchen. I guess what I'm saying is, look out kiddo, what goes around probably DOES come around!

[winesonoma]

Many years ago when Microwave ovens first came out I was working at a - 40 Degree food warehouse that serviced the Pacific Fleet Fleet. One day Brass came in and tightened security at the gate because the ships would find a hole in the Pallet of streaks or lobster tails that they were shipped. It took them a couple of months to find the 2 brand new Microwave ovens in the employee lunchroom. Was fun while it lasted.

Edited November 7, 2004 by winesonoma (log)

[TheFoodTutor]

Actually, I don't know where to begin.

I have seen 5 people steal 16 wine glasses from a private room in a fine-dining restaurant, and they weren't even drinking any wine, so they plucked the wine glasses that had been removed from the place settings off the sidestand and placed them in their sleek, black, to-go bags for easy removal from the building.

I have seen people take pepper mills and salt shakers, very large sugar caddies in the shape of Marvin the Martian, bottles of condiments of various kinds, and basically just about anything that's not nailed down. Bottles of wine are a great thing to snag on your way out the door, with your takeout bag in hand, apparantly.

The thing with women taking money out of their husband's tip while walking away from the table seems especially despicable, and I know it happens, but I haven't actually caught someone in the act. And taking a tip off another table is much worse. Whenever I leave a tip in cash as I'm leaving a restaurant, I try to hand it to the server personally with a "Thank you" just because I know that a busser or another employee of the establishment could try to pocket it, or another patron could swipe it, as they are sitting down at a dirty table that hasn't been bussed from the previous guest. At seat-yourself types of places, it's even possible to grab the entire amount of cash left by the previous patron, for their tab and their tip, and then sit there and pretend that the last person walked out on their check and you have no idea what happened. It's a good thing that these sorts of comps don't happen that often at the place where I work, because it's an especially bitter phenomenon, for both the server and the restaurant owner.

And the employees of a restaurant certainly do steal. The percentage of the theft varies widely between fine dining and casual. The more casual the restaurant, the more that you will see patrons thieving, because there are far more patrons than employees. The more upscale a restaurant is, the more you will see employees stealing a good deal more, because the average server or cook is only serving a relatively small number of people.

I had a roommate who stole a couple of filets from a fine-dining restaurant where we both worked, and on the night he brought them home in his pockets, I'd like to be proud to say that I told him I would not partake of stolen goods. Instead, in spite of my generally pervasive morality, my response was, "Thanks for making dinner, roomie!" In my defense, we were working for an employer whom I hated, and still do not care for much at all, because of their general disregard for honest business practices.

Still, it's not a behavior I condone to steal from anyone.

[StudentChefEclipse]

Actually, StudentChefEclipse...I was being my usual sarcastic self and hinting that somehow the schools must be teaching people how to do this stuff... for the scams I've seen and heard of are not only rampant but incredibly detailed and intelligent. Always surprises me that people that are capable of thinking up these things and then implementing them are sometimes not doing too well in the actual tasks their jobs require...but then again...all that energy and intelligence is being used to think of the next scam...  

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Gods, wouldn't it be nice if people used their powers for good instead of evil?

[Squeat Mungry]

Back in my bar days, it was a constant and losing battle trying to stanch the flow of our glassware out of the swinging doors in our patrons pockets, bags, sometimes even just in their fists.

I think the weirdest instance of patron theft (employee theft is a whole other kettle of fish) I know of happened the last time I ate at the now-closed Meetinghouse restaurant here in San Francisco. About halfway through our meal, my table-mate and I noticed a little subtle commotion at the back of the dining room. A bit later, on my way to use the restroom, I asked one of the waiters what had happened. Turns out someone had stolen the wastebasket from the restroom by shoving it out the window into the alley! The earlier activity had been staff making the discovery (a busboy actually saw the thief making off with the wastebasket through the restroom window), then scrambling around to find a replacement.

Cheers,

Squeat

[Raynickben]

The Dallas Morning News had an interesting article a week or so ago that profiled a local company that installs surveillance in restaurants to catch theft, scam artists, etc.

Read it here.

You never know who's watching you!

[Jake]

Back in my bar days, it was a constant and losing battle trying to stanch the flow of our glassware out of the swinging doors in our patrons pockets, bags, sometimes even just in their fists.

I think the weirdest instance of patron theft (employee theft is a whole other kettle of fish) I know of happened the last time I ate at the now-closed Meetinghouse restaurant here in San Francisco. About halfway through our meal, my table-mate and I noticed a little subtle commotion at the back of the dining room. A bit later, on my way to use the restroom, I asked one of the waiters what had happened. Turns out someone had stolen the wastebasket from the restroom by shoving it out the window into the alley! The earlier activity had been staff making the discovery (a busboy actually saw the thief making off with the wastebasket through the restroom window), then scrambling around to find a replacement.

Cheers,

Squeat

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That just made my morning!

[Gifted Gourmet]

The Dallas Morning News had an interesting article a week or so ago that profiled a local company that installs surveillance in restaurants to catch theft, scam artists, etc.

Read it here.

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This article is wonderful and covers all the questions I might have considered! Thanks for finding it and offering it to the exact right thread!

[chow guy]

I worked for a very upscale restaurant with a very wealthy clientele.  Three things routinely pilfered were:

Salt & pepper shakers

Toilet paper ( )

Flowers out of the bud vases on the tables

Someone also once tried to walk out with the entranceway centerpiece, which weighed about 80 pounds.

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Ditto ...I experienced all of the above at a very expensive place in NYC (including the huge arragement at the door). I worked front of the house and we used to add the stolen item(s)...(including stems of flowers at $5 per stem) onto the check, itemized and with sales tax. One very rich socialite threw a fit and in her dramatic aria the pewter show plate she was denying having stolen, slipped out of her purse onto the floor. We never saw her again. Thank goodness.

Often famous folks would also ask to use the phone (way before cell phones) and then make international calls. Which is also just another kind of high class pilfering.

[phaelon56]

what is your take on people who are nattily attired and obviously able to purchase their own dining accoutrements, pilfering restaurant items?

I could care lesss about the attire or the ability (or lack of same) to afford such items. Theft is theft and regardless of whether it's in a restaurant, a hotel or someone shoplifting from a retail store (or even breaking and entering for that matter) it's all the same.

I've knowno fo several restaurants and at leats one tavern locally that experienced serious financial problems due to internal theft, nearly all related to cash skimming and liquor pilferage in the bar operation. Absentee owners and managers who don't keep a very careful eye on operations are ineveitably subject to such scams unless they're very lucky and just happen to have really good people working for them.

That said... my mea culpa relates to the summer I spent working in a big classic old school style hotel in my hometown (it's now defunct and has closed its doors so no harm done in fessing up). Employees were generally treated like expendable crap but the maitre d' was off on Sundays. One of my enterprising co-workers figured how to get us unlimited Manhattans from the room service bar to sip on during our shift and also found out how to bypass the locking system on the walk-in cooler so we could eat unlimited jumbo shrimp. It was a short but memorable summer....

[bobmac]

On the way out of a restaurant, a former colleague snatched a lobster from the tank and stuffed it into his briefcase. I believe alcohol was involved.

[Mabelline]

Indeed, a fascinating subject. I will only say that there are folks who'll steal anything, just to do it. It has nothing to do with class, privilege, income, etc. It boils down most times to moral fiber, aka character. I cannot do something simply because 'no one saw', because I saw. I know, and I have to look in my mirror when I am gettin' up in the morning. My mama always told me to think of everything I did as being seen by all my ancestors. That put the skids on alot of deviant child behaviors.

I only hope that the places using this will use it as much to PROTECT employees as PROSECUTE.

[Gifted Gourmet]

On the way out of a restaurant, a former colleague snatched a lobster from the tank and stuffed it into his briefcase. I believe alcohol was involved.

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This is hysterical!