Newsletter
Each issue covers the month's theft and fraud schemes that hit independent businesses, sorted by the five points, plus one control worth tightening. Read it here or download the PDF to share with your managers.
Welcome to the first issue. Each month we pick out the theft and fraud stories that matter most to independent restaurants, bars, liquor stores and small shops, sort them by the five points of loss, and give you one control worth tightening. Every story links to the original reporting. We don't name the people involved.
Two of this month's cases follow the same script. At a restaurant in South Florida, a manager responsible for the daily bank deposits is accused of keeping the cash for about nine days, more than $33,000 in all. At a store in central Pennsylvania, a manager took seven daily deposits out of the safe instead of taking them to the bank, a little under $13,000.
Neither scheme was clever. Both worked for as long as nobody compared what the register said with what the bank received. In each case, that comparison is exactly what ended it. Done daily, it limits any gap to one day's cash instead of a week's or more.
Five minutes each morning. No software needed beyond your POS and your bank app.
NBC 6 South Florida · Aug 26, 2026
A restaurant manager whose job included the daily bank deposits is accused of keeping the cash over about nine days. The deposits were said to have been dropped at night, but the bank had no record and no video of them.
Check this: Match every day's POS cash to the bank's posted deposit the next morning.
GantNews · Sep 23, 2026
A store manager in Pennsylvania took seven daily deposits from the safe and never brought them to the bank, about $12,760. A district manager caught the gap and safe-area video confirmed it.
Check this: Reconcile deposits against the bank daily, not monthly, and put a camera on the safe.
WTSP 10 Tampa Bay (via NewsBreak) · Sep 18, 2026
At a fast-food location in the Tampa Bay area, an employee allegedly rang refunds when no customers were present, including when the store was closed, and kept the cash. Video matched to the refund times exposed it.
Check this: Pull refunds by employee and by hour each week. Flag refunds with no matching sale and refunds rung at open, close or dead times.
AOL (syndicated local report) · Jul 24, 2026
A former convenience store clerk in South Carolina allegedly used a photo of a customer's winning ticket, posted on social media, to cash it at her old store's terminal. State agents said it was the fourth similar clerk arrest in about two weeks.
Check this: Review lottery payout logs against the schedule, and shut off terminal access the day someone leaves.
Hoodline · Sep 3, 2026
A stolen car was driven through the front of a liquor store in Maryland overnight and several bottles of high-end tequila were taken. The store had an attempted break-in two years earlier.
Check this: Move the most-stolen bottles away from the front glass or lock them up after hours. A store hit once is likely to be hit again.
NBC 6 South Florida · Jul 31, 2026
Video at a Florida liquor store showed a suspect loading tequila bottles into a backpack. Investigators believe the same person hit other stores, with losses in the thousands.
Check this: Count your 20 most-stolen bottles every week, not just at month end.
CBS Chicago · Sep 26, 2026
Around 2:45 a.m., a vehicle rammed the front of a Chicago liquor store. A group went in, took the ATM and left in a second car.
Check this: Anchor the ATM and keep it away from the front glass. Check your ATM contract for who covers cash loss and damage.
WAFF 48 · Sep 12, 2026
A masked burglar broke into an Alabama liquor store after hours. Deputies identified him using the store's video, neighboring businesses' cameras and license plate readers.
Check this: Make sure your cameras record usable video at night and cover the parking lot, not only the register.
WLFI 18 · Aug 20, 2026
Counterfeit bills were passed at gas station convenience stores in Indiana. A search connected to the case turned up many more fake $100 bills.
Check this: Train cashiers to check the watermark, security thread and color-shifting ink on every $50 and $100. A pen alone is not enough.
WLFI 18 · Sep 22, 2026
A suspect allegedly paid for high-dollar goods at small Indiana businesses with bad checks, including a $16,000 equipment purchase, and had fraud warrants in four counties.
Check this: Don't release high-value goods or book a large event on a check until it clears. The same goes for big catering deposits.
Federal Trade Commission · Sep 24, 2026
The FTC is reviewing whether its impersonation rule should reach the platforms and ad tools that help these scams spread. It cited $3.5 billion in reported impersonation losses in 2025 across more than 1 million reports. For owners, the familiar version is the call from the "utility," "health department" or "vendor" demanding payment today.
Check this: Set a standing rule: no payment requested by phone, text or ad link goes out until someone calls back on a number you already have on file.
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