Den Of Thieves

Where I work, you have to be 18 or older to work as a sandwich maker. Underage workers mainly work cashier and drive-thru, along with packing together the meals, just not making the sandwiches. As I’m underage, I always work at a cash register.

I have been working there for about seven or eight months when I’m called into the back room. One of the lesser managers just says, “Sorry, so sorry,” as I am heading back. I don’t think anything of it until I start talking to my head manager. Apparently, my register was short $5, and even though my head manager keeps saying that I probably gave back the wrong amount of change, I can tell she thinks I took it. I get written up and have to pay the $5. I don’t know if this is legal or not; I am 17 and this is my first job.

Anyway, I just accept it and move on. But then, one day I come in, and I get called back again. This time, there is $10 missing. My head manager closes the door behind us this time and asks the lesser manager if I used my register last night. I was working drive-thru, and, since he was a manager, I thought nothing of it when he took one of my guests for me. We actually did this a lot with many managers. I said he did. Apparently, he is known to come up short on registers a few days before payday — just enough to cover the cost for a pack of cigs. The head manager tells me she isn’t going to write me up this time, as I have usually been on-the-dot perfect on my registers for the nine or ten months I have been there. But, apparently, there is this major count thing going on on Monday, and if I don’t get the $10 in soon, it will come up short, and people will get fired. I am told that if I pay the $10, they will get the lesser manager to give me $5. It isn’t worth it to me, so I just give the $10.

I sort of put that in the back of my mind, and within the next week or two, they fire the lesser manager. I never get my $5.

I end up quitting right before my senior year, to give me more time for extracurricular activities.

The real kicker is that I go back a few years later when I am halfway done with college. Only one manager from my first time working there is still there. She tells me the old head manager has been fired. Apparently, she was stealing from the company for years. She got away with about $5000 before they caught her.