Employee Theft | Identifying the Offender

When company property is unlawfully appropriated, two main distinctions are made: If the offence constitutes embezzlement (Art. 138 SCC), the perpetrator has taken property previously entrusted to them. Theft, on the other hand, refers to objects that did not lie within the perpetrator’s custody at the time of the crime, as defined in the statutory text. Typical items misappropriated in the context of employment relationships include company vehicles, tools or work clothing in cases of embezzlement, while theft commonly involves banknotes (especially from tills and accounting areas), individual goods (for example when replenishing shelves), or processing materials. Unfortunately, employees everywhere all too readily help themselves to their employer’s property. After all, opportunity makes thieves – and which assets are more conveniently within reach than openly accessible tools, stockpiled goods in the company warehouse, valuables on a colleague’s desk or delivery items left in a transport vehicle?

The trained commercial investigators of the Kurtz Detective Agency in Zurich and throughout Switzerland provide legally admissible evidence through surveillance, research, and both legend-based and prepared theft traps: +41 44 5522 264.

Long-fingered Workers – Stealing on the Job

Theft as Everyday Business Practice

Especially with supposedly minor items such as stationery or USB sticks, thieving employees often seem unaware that taking such objects constitutes theft under Art. 139 SCC – not some petty triviality according to the motto “everyone does it”. Once it becomes known internally that a single employee repeatedly steals low-value items without consequences, this frequently develops into an unfortunate role model effect. A mentality quickly spreads within the workforce in which theft of company property becomes normalised. In this way, supposed trifles add up to significant losses. Accordingly, employers must adopt a clear stance and take firm action against offenders; otherwise, copycat behaviour is almost inevitable.

Our Zurich corporate investigation agency obtains the necessary evidence across Switzerland, using local specialist investigators – gladly also for your company.

High-value Goods | Recurrent Theft by an Individual Offender

Naturally, not only low-value items are stolen but also laptops, production machinery and even software. In other cases, the offender causes substantial damage not through the individual value of the stolen items but through regular, repeated thefts. This may concern, for instance, a postal delivery worker who diverts individual parcels from their vehicle every day, or a waiter who enters only four out of five paid drinks into the till and pockets the cash for the fifth. Clever offenders use various concealment tactics, as a result of which discrepancies are noticed – if at all – only months later during inventory checks, or suspicion is directed at third parties (non-employees, other colleagues).

Internal Discord caused by Unresolved Thefts

When workplace thieves target not (only) company assets but also the property of their colleagues, this inevitably results in serious breakdowns of trust within the workforce. Jewellery, smartphones, cash – nothing is sacred to the perpetrators. General insecurity spreads, as the thief remains unidentified and everyone begins to suspect everyone else. As an employer, it is your responsibility to put a stop to such thefts to protect the working atmosphere and thus internal productivity.

Our detectives from Zurich support you with their expertise. We are happy to answer your questions in a personal conversation at +41 44 5522 264. Naturally, you may also send us an email at kontakt@kurtz-detektei-schweiz.ch or use our contact form.