Private Snoop Investigations was retained by a leading North American Manufacturer.  The company’s stock is traded on the NYSE and it has annual net sales of more than $2.5 billion.  They employee approximately 10,000 employees and operate more than 90 facilities in North America.

  YOU DESERVE THE TRUTH

The General Manager of a manufacturing company contacted Private Snoop Investigations and asked that an Investigator come to his office to discuss issues that he had discovered at his plant.

Investigator traveled to the plant and met with the General Manager. The General Manager told the Investigator that he had observed video of activity involving an employee.  He reported that the activity was troubling and perhaps criminal in nature.  The activity involved the removal of a large number of pallets from company property.  He told the investigator that he wanted the activity investigated to determine what was going on and if the activity was illegal. 

Additional video demonstrated further instances of the employee leaving the property with pallets.  It was decided by the investigator, and approved by the General Manager, that GPS units would be placed in two pallets in an effort to determine where the pallets were going.

Over the period of several weeks the same employee would exit company property with a truck full of pallets and sometimes with a truck and trailer full of pallets. 

Investigators placed GPS units in two pallets and followed the employee as he left company property with a truck and trailer full of pallets.  The employee was on the job and used company equipment to load the pallets. 

With the assistance of the GPS units investigators followed the employee to a residence about 40 miles from the plant.  Surveillance was conducted and two days later investigators observed the employee leaving his family member’s residence in the truck full of pallets pulling the trailer containing pallets.  Again, with the assistance of the two GPS units, investigator’s followed the employee.  He was followed about 45 miles to a business that bought and manufactured pallets.  Investigators took video of the truck and trailer as they were backed into a spot so they could be unloaded.  The truck and trailer were unloaded and the employee left the area in the truck.  Investigators followed the truck to a local bank where the employee exited the truck and went into the bank.  Investigators suspected, and later confirmed, the employee was cashing a check for the pallets that he had just received from the pallet place.

Investigators later went to the pallet place and talked to the manager/owner.  The owner told investigators that he had been purchasing pallets from the employee for more than four years.  The owner of the pallet company eventually gave investigators copies of Invoice’s and copies of canceled checks written to the employee.  Some of the canceled checks and invoices dated back for more than four years.  In order to prevent allegations of trespassing Investigators later rented an airplane and flew over an area looking for additional pallets.

Further investigation revealed that the thefts of pallets from the company had been going on for more than four years and the cost to the company exceeded $100,000.00.

The Company fired the employee and the union to which the employee was a member filed an unfair labor practice charge claiming that the Company had improperly terminated the employee.  Based on the information developed through the investigation, the NLRB determined that there was nothing improper about the Company’s decision to fire the employee.

The General Manager credits Private Snoop Investigations with gathering evidence that was damning enough to survive the U.S. Department of Labor’s thorough investigation.