'He just left me there': Employee left alone for hours only to find out the manager walked out with thousands of dollars of company money

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Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Dec 18, 2023 6:00 PM EST

In the two long years in which I worked as a cashier in retail, I have seen my fair share of dramatic moments. I have faced angry customers who broke store items in a fit of rage, I have seen annoyed workers quitting mid-shift and never returning, and I have had to deal with a decent number of petty Karen customers.

But never have I ever been on a shift and seen my manager run out the door with thousands of dollars of stolen company money and never return. Which is not something this Reddit writer can say for himself. I was truly shocked when I read this story, and I was even more shocked to read the comments and learn about how often stories like this happen, sometimes without the company even noticing, and many times without the thief being caught. 

I invite you to read through this incident and the comments for a real eye-opening experience. And when you're done, make sure you check out these funny memes for a hilarious recap of 2023.

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  • 01
    Today while I (26M) was being trained to open, my manager (24M) ran out the door with thousands of dollars of stolen company money
    via u/Uncle_Andy_
  • 02
    This only just happened, so I'm still processing it. I've been working at this tiny little specialty restaurant for a few months now as a closer, but the manager wanted to start training me to work opens. It was only my
    via u/Uncle_Andy_
  • 03
    second open, so we were still ironing out all the details, like making sure I remember all of the prep and count the cash correctly. Just 30 minutes into our open, he tells me that he forgot something important at home, but he would
    via u/Uncle_Andy_
  • 04
    be right back. I didn't think much of it, just confirming to him that I would be okay as I continued the opening duties. An hour and a half passes. He's still not back.
    via u/Uncle_Andy_
  • 05
    A new employee comes in for her first shift. Since I'm the only one at the shop, I begin to train her. Luckily she's a transfer from a different location, so I basically have to teach her the layout and otherwise she's fine.
    via u/Uncle_Andy_
  • 06
    Two more hours pass. He's still not back. Assistant manager (AM) comes in. She asks where the manager is. I tell her that he's been gone for nearly four hours. She's immediately stunned, then furious.
    via u/Uncle_Andy_
  • 07
    AM: "But (the district managers) are almost here!" Me: shrugs "All he said was he needed to get something from home."
    via u/Uncle_Andy_
  • 08
    AM, sarcastically: "Oh, like all the money?" That's when I learned that apparently, the manager hasn't been depositing the cash drops
    via u/Uncle_Andy_
  • 09
    into the bank for the past few weeks. Today he was supposed to hand over all of the missing cash deposits directly to the district managers and they would all discuss his employment.
    via u/Uncle_Andy_
  • 10
    He never came back. The AM was promoted to manager. On the bright side, I was given a raise and promoted to shift lead for being able to handle the sudden and unexpected situation with no issues.
    via u/Uncle_Andy_
  • 11
    lonely_ni I was acting manager once in a photo studio over Christmas. Not the busiest place I've ever worked but you can imagine the general intake. I rarely, if ever, saw the district manager. 5 mo. ago
    via u/lonely_ni***
  • 12
    Which suited me fine as we didn't like each other. Maybe late January I get a call from the company's loss prevention office. Turns out every time the DM came into the studio to empty the safe,
    via u/lonely_ni***
  • 13
    she wasn't depositing it. And now she'd gone AWOL with the company laptop to boot. I had to go through a really awkward interview with an LP guy to explain that no, I never had a key to the safe, I never made or supervised deposits,
    via u/lonely_ni***
  • 14
    all I ever did was stick the bag of cash in there. Turns out she lived really close to me and I had no idea, which made me look extra complicit. Never did find out what happened to her.
    via u/lonely_ni***
  • 15
    CD NO TeamStark31. 5 mo. ago Not a server, but an AM at a video store I worked with got arrested one day. Cops came in and got him. He'd been stealing from the company for weeks apparently.
    via u/TeamStark31
  • 16
    I was shocked cause he was a nice dude and just had a baby. That was probably 20 years ago and I still remember that day clear as a bell.
    via u/TeamStark31
  • 17
    Plastic-Leave234 · 5 mo. ago So if they knew he was stealing the money, why was he there alone once again to open the restaurant? The district managers should have been there with the police. They
    via u/Plastic-Leave234
  • 18
    deserved to get robbed... Also he's dumb. You're not going to get very far with thousands of dollars.
    via u/Plastic-Leave234
  • 19
    Uncle_Andy_ OP · 5 mo. ago They're currently working to find out exactly how much was stolen so they can return everything in one go, but they've been giving consistent updates with the employee who lost the most (over $200 worth of tips thus far from what I last heard)
    via u/Uncle_Andy_
  • 20
    tapastry125 mo. ago I worked at a place 6-7 years ago where closing Mgr dropped empty bags at the bank night depository. We're talking $8-15K nightly. It took the company about 6 weeks to notice it. When
    via u/tapastry12
  • 21
    the idiots finally figured out they'd been robbed of a quarter million dollars the thief manager was still working there. No money to recover though. He'd blown it all at a casino. The stupidest thing I've ever seen in 40 years in the business
    via u/tapastry12
  • 22
    Ok-Policy-8284 · 5 mo. ago I had a 7-11 manager who would steal from the drop safe and then fire the "problem employee" like she fixed everything. She did it so many times that she wound up arrested
    via u/Ok-Policy-8284
  • 23
    RoseGold-Bubbles1333 · 5 mo. ago You did great in keeping everything going in his absence and I'm glad you got a promotion!!
    via u/RoseGold-Bubbles1333
  • 24
    MikeLitoris 5 mo. ago I had something just like this happen to me. The restaurant got all their money back by keeping all the managers bonus money.
    via u/MikeLitoris______

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