Warehouse Manager Catches Thief -- One Huntsville, Alabama Resident Takes the Law into His Own Hands

Joseph Holmes, owner of Holmes Warehouses, lived up to his surname when he found himself in the middle of a case of missing property and no suspects.

Seattle, WA (prHWY.com) August 16, 2012 - Joseph Holmes, owner of Holmes Warehouses, lived up to his surname when he found himself in the middle of a case of missing property and no suspects.

"We use this warehouse management software," Holmes explains, "which keeps track of what we have and where it's going. I noticed that what the system was saying we had in inventory didn't match up with what was sitting out in the warehouse. There were things missing."

The local police were at a loss as to how to help Holmes find his missing stock. "They told me that without suspects or evidence beyond what the books say there isn't a lot they can go on."

Holmes kept his eye on the inventory and watched hours worth of security camera feeds from around the building, both outside and in. As the days passed, there were still no clues about who was taking inventory, but things continued to disappear. Cases of electronics, power tools, and even clothing shipments that were being stored in Holmes' warehouse were disappearing, seemingly into thin air. "I was completely helpless as stock disappeared and I had no idea where it was going. There was never enough stolen for the police to become seriously involved or anything, but it all kept adding up."

If the trend continued, Holmes would soon be out of business and still not know how or why. One late night found Holmes going over the warehouse's management software, hoping for something to stick out. It did.

"The software keeps track of all of the trucks-- where they come from, what they're bringing, when they get here and all of that-- and something didn't match up. Scheduled arrival times on the shipments that ultimately had things stolen from them were hours before our records of their actual arrival. It's not out of the ordinary for the trucks to be a little late, but it was weird that the trucks bringing in missing things were always late."

With a little further digging, Holmes found that the trucks, affiliated with different companies for the most part, had all been logged as stopping at the same truck stop just outside of town. Holmes called the police with this information the next morning.

"All that time I had been thinking the inventory was being stolen from my own building. Well, I told the police about the truck stop and they went out just in the nick of time. When they showed up they caught the thieves the act! It turns out that when the truck drivers left their trucks to get washed, someone would break into the truck and take out what they think won't be missed. Then, and this is how they got away with it for so long, they were affiliated with one of my employees who recorded a full shipment in our logs. Let's just say that the person who did that didn't return to work on Monday."

Weeks after realizing that inventory recorded in the warehouse's management system had mysteriously disappeared, it turned out that the answers were right there in the system, too. "The police say I should be brought on as a detective," Holmes smiled. Nearly all of his inventory was returned to him, and now Holmes takes extra care to check the records.

###

Tag Words: management software

Categories: Technology

Link To This Press Release:

URL HTML Code