was walking out of HD carring a PT 2×4.
this guy comes up to me and asked me if I needed my receipt.
I didn’t so I said “yes, I do.”
wonder what his scam is?
carry a 2x from the back to returns thru the store, to collect?
????
_____________________________
bobl Volo, non valeo
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Replies
Could be as simple as cash write off in April.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
I was thinking it could be useful for handymen doing a T&M job, present receipts and get a standard mark up, but your way works at least as well.
I don't, but you could launder alot of cash rcpts come tax time. Course, producing rcpts for unused material is also shady, just a different target.Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
Maybe he needed a piece of paper to write a girl's number on. Ha ha ha.
Knew a guy, almost called him a friend but I never trusted him, who used to pick up supplies for a local construction company. Things like lumber and fence sections.
He would pay for the materials with the company credit card and drive around back to pick it up. Sometimes the guy at the loading dock would forget to get the order slip.
My guy would unload at the site and go to the other lumber yard across town, same company, and use the slip to pick up a second helping of what he had already received. This load he would sell at his house.
Rumor was he may have had a friend working the dock at one of the lumber yards conveiniently 'forgetting' to collect the slips.
cloud, phone #..................maybe.
4, no matter how many I hear, there's always a better story down the pike. Never ceases to amaze me, that criminal conniving mind.Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
few things piss me off more than a thief... have'n been in the food & bar business where "internal losses /shrinkage" can kill you quick... i've made a habit of letting people know when someone that works for them is acting like a "partner" I've spend too much time on the bad end of those deals that if i just had whats been stolen from me i'd be do'n well enough to be type'n this from a boat in the FL keys...
i still extend trust to the untrusted so that maybe they can become trustworthy... i just try to limit how much trust i extend...
in my area some chains won't even locate here because the huge "shrinkage factor" seems we have a workforce that largely feels that they are entitled to "make a little extra" ask for a tip when loading your truck telling you some of the boards "looked bad so i put a few extra on for you" or even tell you "next time just come back to the back i can sell it to you cheaper from here"
i don't know if this happens to everyone or just because i talk crap to everyone, drive an older truck, usually dress in old jeans t-shirt & work boots have longer hair ect... but it happens to me even at the drive thru windows i get " i took care of you on your order" sometimes nothing is even said and i find way more than could just be a mistake... hell maybe i'm just pretty <g>
p
If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, you must be looking in a mirror : )
I never met a tool I didn't like!
< have'n been in the food & bar business where "internal <losses /shrinkage" can kill you quick...
You know the one then, what you get when you cross an alligator and a bartender??? An alligator that steals..
Long ago & far away.............I worked in a bar.
The owners used to sit at the bar & watch the bartenders all night to make sure they didn't steal.
Every night when they got their bank they stole $100 right then, and made it up during the night by short changing.
$100 + the night's tips = happy bartenders.
Owners thought they were just smart as sheet keeping the bartenders honest.
Joe H
IMHO somewhere along the line things have drifted. When the US had a viable middle class there was an expectation that if you worked hard you were pretty much sure to move up. Do well.
Any more I talk to people without any firm hope of getting ahead. I read the average family has nothing in savings and is something like $5000 in debt. A whole lot of honest, hard working folks can barely keep their heads above water. They increasingly see most of those who made it as getting there by influence, chance or cheating.
Now the only path ahead, in a lot of minds, is winning the lottery or scoring on a scam. Seems a whole lot of people are looking for an 'in' or an angle. SWAG is just another angle.
As America starts to look like a banana republic it seems to be developing a similar ethical code. Not to say theft hasn't been around. It just seems more common and those doing it seem a lot more proud of what they steal. Like they were putting one over on the proverbial and ever anonymous 'man'. Getting the money more important than how you get it.
A lack of ethics on the bottom or legitimacy at the top, possibly both, seems the likely cause.
Where in the world did self respect go?Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
i remember a couple years ago.. they indicted about 10 Providence public works guys...
they were selling the manholes for scrap..
what a buncha maroons..... 200 lb. manhole and frames , musta cost $200.. selling
'em for $10 scrap.....
and they all lost their jobs , tooMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
I have a buddy that works for the city housing authority ...
has friends at city works ...
back of his property he has an old well ....
a city manhole and frame would make for the perfect drop in solution ...
he asked a boss about "finding" one a good home ...
apearantly they're like gold. He was told no way ....
seems the city can't keep the one's they have in stock ...
you've heard how they're welded shut from time to time for "national security" and such ...
the boss told him in some parts of the city they're welded shut because so many have already been stolen.
Jeff
why would some body steal a manhole cover that is already in place???
surprise some unwary driver...
a serious speed dip instead of a bump????
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
why would some body steal a manhole cover that is already in place???
Well theres the $64 question. Why the hell do people steal a lot of things!
For no other reason than to steal it????
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
I once repaired a rental where the tenants had stolen the cheapo, plated kitchen cabinet hardware. Light bulbs were also an item that was usually stolen in a lot of rentals.Formerly just 'Don' but not the 'Glassmaster Don' or the lower-case 'don'.
When I got divorced, being the swell guy that I am, I moved out of the house and my wife was supposed to stay and pay the mortgage. One day a friend calls and says he drove by the house and it looked empty. I go out there (November) and sure enough, she moved out. Took all the switch plates!
I've owned rental property and had a ex FIL that had quite a few rentals for 40 years, as you know the stories never cease to amaze!!!
I think i can top all tenant stories...
I had one take down the kitchen wallpaper and take it with em to re install it... they even told me they did... i just said....ummm OK
I've done a lot of rehab work for banks. Talk about folks trying to get even.
I once had a house where the owners before being tossed out removed all switches and pluga by cutting the wire even with the inside of the box. A quick check showed that they even took the main too.
There's a book out called "The modern mans guide to life." It covers everything from how to land an airplane if the pilot has a heart attack to cooking pork chops with a blow torch. One of the subjects is steal ing from you employer. The first rule in stealing from your employer is never embezzell anything that's valued at less then a years salary. They explain that only a true idiot would would lose a job over a ten dollar item. Good advice.Who Dares Wins.
I can top all of those. Relative lived with his slightly dotty mother (very bad short-term memory). Every day (an I mean EVERY day) he'd ask his mom for a check for groceries. She'd write it out, leaving the payee and amount blank. He'd go cash it for $200 (sometimes more, never less) and then charge the groceries to her credit card. So that's $6K a month, plus he'd generally clear another $1-2K through other scams.
He kept the books for her, so he'd know how much was in the checking account. When it got low ($4K/month pension and SS wasn't quite covering it!) he'd tell her to take money out of her brokerage account.
Best guess is that this scam had been going on for 6-8 years, and he'd gotten on the order of half a mill.
Of course, it all went to gambling.
Kinda like the book, "Steal this Book"
Remember that one, a lot of good ideas in there!
Never read it. The modern mans guide to lfe was written by the guys that do the playboy advisor. It's good bathroom reading. Good tips on everything from ettiquite to mechanics. Who Dares Wins.
Makes me think of a scam that they had going at a lumberyard near here. One of the counter guys and one delivery guy were in on it, as well as several customers.
Counter guy gets an order for 100 sheets of plywod. (or whatever) He prints up a ticket for 20 sheets, and gives it to the yard guy. The yard guy pulls 100 sheets and delivers them. The customer signs for the 20 sheet and pays cash at 50 cents on the dollar for the other 80 sheets.
Counter guy and yard guy split the cash 50/50. But eventually someone turned them in and they got arrested.
.
Next week when I got paid, our boss had written us a nice letter about it. He said if any of his employees tried a scam like that, he would personally hire a lawyer to try to make sure we did jail time.
Nice way to motivate your employees...Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused.
Almost forgot -
When the plant I work at first opened, the plant guys who worked Saturdays would get a small cash bonus every week. They thought it was because they were doing a good job and were helping out by working overtime. Eventually they figured out the truth
The plant manager was having them build "special" orders on Saturday mornings. Then after the plant guys were gone he'd use on of the company trucks to deliver the "special" order trusses and sell them for cash.The best way to cheer yourself up is to cheer others up [Mark Twain]
Shop lifting scam.
Who Dares Wins.
The stores around me don't require a receipt to return things as long as they can scan it. You do have to show an ID and fill out a short form. Lowes gives a gift card and Hd and Menard's gives cash. I think the guy was using the receipts for tax deductions.
If you return too often you get flagged.
Jon Blakemore
I was getting the permits for a bucket tooth manufacturer. They wanted to expand their operation. We had a meeting with the locals as required. Locals were happy except for those Sunday morning pick ups, they made a lot of noise loading up 7:30 Sunday morning. You guessed it. The VP of the operation who was at the meeting responded with,"What Sunday pick ups? we do'nt have any scheduled Sunday pick ups." Apparently, some one had been helping themselves for years.
I think folks may be reading too deeply into and maybe missing out on some free dollars themselves. The HD's in my area have occassionaly had a promotion where if you spend X dollars you can send in your receipts for X dollars back in the form of a gift card. I did one this spring and netted a $150 gift card for merely sending in photo copies of my receipts. Check into it next time you are in. There is one going on right now in my area again....
I remember going through O'Hare some years back and eating at one of the airport lunch counters. They had the cash register set up so the receipts would drop out into a small box on the counter. Folks on expense accounts would grab theirs as it came out. Folks who wanted to skim their EA a bit would rummage through the ones left in the box to find the one with the highest value.