Craig Whitfield made a stop along his route in Ohio to grab a bite to eat. What resulted from that meal was the arrest of a waitress for inflating tips on credit card receipts. Whitfield, the author of the book “Guess Who’s Eating Your Profits,” made this stop as part of his job, not as a patron. The doubling of his $3 tip to the waitress is one of the stories from his book that he uses to bring about the realities of employee theft.
According to the National Restaurant Association, 75% of a restaurant’s inventory loss can be attributed to employee theft. Whitfield has witnessed this theft first hand as a former police officer for the City of Mishawaka (Indiana). His book is written for restaurateurs to help them identify and stop employee theft. He details his experiences in the book, including when he was a child and his parents caught an employee stealing from a restaurant they owned locally.
Employee theft is nothing new and is expected to rise in the coming years. “Though the research didn’t provide exact numbers, in general, more recently hired employees — those with less than a year on the job — and part-time employees with no vested interest in the company are the employees who tend to be apprehended more frequently.” This from Mark Doyle in an interview with Business News Daily back in 2013.
While employee theft can ultimately lead to a business bankruptcy, Whitfield hopes to help owners protect their business from such theft. The book was released in 2015 and is available from both Barnes and Nobles as well as Amazon.com.
