Posted on 10/10/2009 6:27:49 AM PDT by inflorida
I’ve got lots of questions about this story.
- The article says the thief, “stole as much as $200,000.” Why don’t they have a more exact amount? Wal*Mart has very strict rules about how money is accounted for and counted in the cash room.
- I doubt Wal*Mart corporate would allow a store to have $200,000 in the cash room. I don’t think the average store would have use for that amount of cash. Maybe it’s a typo and the amount was really $20,000?
- I’d assume, since Wal*Mart is a retail store that the bills in the cash room would be rather small. Mostly 1’s, 5’s, 10’s and 20’s with maybe a few 50’s and 100’s? Probably no bills larger than $100. If so, $200,000 would be a huge number of bills. I’m wondering how the thief got $200,000 into two “small white boxes?”
I like one of the comments - “this isn’t spectacular. I can’t get the employees at WalMart to notice me either”.
It depends on how small the small white boxes are. And I can guaranty that that there were no bills larger than 100’s
$200K is a lot of money, but figure in about $30,000 to 60,000 just for one day's starting cash, adding in cash sales money for the day. Being Friday, they might well have cash on hand for the entire weekend. As in any business, the ones will be used up while the twenties pile up as cash sales are made.
They sell big screen TV’s like popcorn at $500+ a pop!
This happened in July, so I'd assume that the obvious methods have already been tried and failed. I guess the parking lot video came up empty as to a license plate, too.
This is why my stores, and most grocery and drug stores, have their safes in plain sight.
Looks like an older guy.
The white boxes in the video looked large enough to carry that amount of bills.
In Middle to upper middle class American large population areas that certainly would not be an unusual amount. Wal-Mart super stores would almost invariably take in far more than 200k a day. Think People.
Perhaps with a dash of stupidity on management's part.
The cashier’s bags have $200.00 to start their shift.
1 roll of each coin = $18.00
52 ones = 52.00
8 fives = 40.00
5 tens = 50.00
2 twenties = 40.00
The bags are called “resets”. Customer service has $1,000.00 in their bags b/c of refunding so much money. Other departments such as the jewelry dept, sporting goods, and vision center have more money in their bags as well.
When you go into a Walmart, you will notice that there is always a bank next to customer service. The cash office is securely locked. Nobody gets in without a key and the only ones who have keys are managers. Once you are in the cash office, you don’t let anybody else in. There is a “drop” slot in the wall next to the door for cashiers to turn in their bags at the end of their shift. There is a key inside for workers to take with them when they go to the restroom but other than that, employees do not have keys. They also cannot bring any purses or personal bags into the cash office. You can carry a change purse or small wallet in a pocket but that is all.
Back to the bank - inside the cash office is a locked wall door which has another locked wall door on the bank side. When the bank is open, monies are transferred over to the bank throughout the day. The cash room is balanced every 2 hours and every time there is a shift change. NO EXCEPTIONS. The money in the safe is counted and all the reset bags that have not been handed out are recounted. The deposits already prepared are in the safe and sealed.
There is usually at least $60,000 in bills and rolled coin in the safe to make up the reset bags. The “room” must balance every 2 hours. Now, during the weekends, if the bank is closed (which it is in some stores) the monies stay in the safe. There can be as much as a half million to a million dollars on the weekends. The safe is normally NOT locked due to the cash office employees having to have constant access for balancing the room and giving out change. There are 3 cameras in each cash room 2 in plain sight and known to the employees and 1 that is secret. I don’t know what state this robbery took place in but I have recounted how things were done in the store I worked in. It is extremely difficult for an unauthorized person to gain entrance to the cash room even with inside help.
Thanks for the info. That’s a lot less than I would have thought, but I’m definately not in a retail operation, and certainly not one the size of WalMart. Back in my younger years in a much smaller operation, we only had one cash register and one drawer. It had a lot more than $200 at the start of the day, but it was a more cash-oriented society back then also.
I learned a lot about how Walmart operates by working in the cash office. They really do have a good system for accounting too. But what’s really amazing is the sheer volume of money taken in every day.
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