Thieves have stolen hundreds of dollars this semester from the cash register behind Paradox Manager Anna Baker (right) and employee Chloe Truong-Jones (left).
An unidentified thief stole approximately 180 dollars from the Paradox’s Olde Shop on Monday night, leaving employees with an empty cash register the next morning. This theft comes on the heels of several others at the Paradox this year, a problem that has been unheard of in years past. Though Paradox managers failed to give exact figures, they reported that the cash register was looted several times during the fall, the perpetrator(s) making off with between fifty and seventy dollars each time. This semester, thieves have emptied the entire register between three and five times, with losses averaging about 180 dollars each time.
As of now, it is suspected that the thief or thieves had a key. Though one window in the shop had a loose lock, thefts persisted even after it was fixed. Paradox manager Anna Baker says, “We don’t think it’s an employee but it might be. It’s really unclear at this point. The CSOs are taking over this investigation because we don’t think it’s appropriate to ‘investigate’ our friends and peers.’”
Though the Paradox reported thefts to Community Safety last semester, the managers declined to have an investigation pursued. But as the problem has been continuing, Community Safety has begun looking into the matter preliminarily. According to Director of Community Safety Gary Granger, they have begun looking at the timing of missing money compared to employee work schedules, CSO “unlocks” of the shop, and CSO work schedules. Still, Granger says it’s unlikely that Community Safety will look more extensively into the problem, and even if they did, it would be difficult to determine who is responsible with the evidence they have.
The Paradox is currently working with Community Safety to improve their security procedures. Community Safety is working on giving the shop a safe that all employees will have fingerprint access to. Last semester, employees would hide the cash register after closing shop, but this semester they have been putting money from the cash register into envelopes, which are then more earnestly hidden.
In the meantime, Granger says, “It is extremely unfortunate that this has happened and we will work with the managers in the coming weeks to make it much more difficult to take the Paradox’s money.”