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Comment by yndoendo | Hacker News Reader

I have a friend that does this for Home Depot. He describes his job as being a detective. Watching video to collect enough evidence so he can question employees shorting the company. Non-employees has their evidence given to the local police department once there is enough.

Often employees with talk about the other crimes they committed while being interrogated. He just plays along, ".. yes we had that too ... and that too". Give them enough evidence and they will hang themselves.

The hardest to catch are the slight of hand employees that can take money from the safe while it looking like they put all the money in. This is even with cameras watching the safe.

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>The hardest to catch are the slight of hand employees that can take money from the safe while it looking like they put all the money in. This is even with cameras watching the safe.

I've read about this in Vegas, where there are people who can palm the the chips so quickly that they weren't able to discern it on 30fps cameras (they had upgraded to 120fps, I think). Didn't know if it was the sort of bullshit people like that like to tell stories about without any evidence or not.

Once you get walked into the room and the folks on the other side of the table start into the Wicklander-Zulawski[1] playbook… it’s game over.

“Take a seat, the door is unlocked and you can leave at any time.”

[1] https://www.w-z.com/private-sector/

> “Take a seat, the door is unlocked and you can leave at any time.”

Why wouldn't everyone just leave at that point? That's what I'd do, since if I'm being investigated, then my job there is over anyway regardless of my guilt or innocence. I'd have nothing to gain by volunteering to be interrogated.

you do a couple of things to distract them on the way, like lead them around to a harder to reach room, ask them unrelated questions e.g. "did you see that goofy guy at the counter this morning", and give the impression that you want to hear their side of the story.

most people will comply esp. if slightly distracted or thrown off a little; the serious hoodrats would be picking a fight or pushing back and the pros would already be walking out the back door ASAP

They've seen too many copaganda shows where open communication with the investigator solves the misunderstanding and they go find the real bad guy.

People think that if they refuse to talk, they'll look guilty. An innocent person would want to clear their name so they'll sit for the interview. If the person really is guilty, they'll probably get tripped up somehow during the questioning and get cornered. Of course they can still leave at any time but they think that as long as they keep talking, eventually they'll convince the investigators that they are innocent.

Loss prevention isn't like the cops, they actually want to catch the thief because if they don't, the thief continues to operate. Cops just need someone to pin it on. Crime continues regardless of whether or not someone was wrongly convicted so what does it matter that one guy got away as long as the public thinks you're doing a good job? LP looks bad if theft continues, no one is applauding them for doing their job.

> An innocent person would want to clear their name so they'll sit for the interview.

I can see that. I think they're misguided, but I can understand the impulse.

> Loss prevention isn't like the cops, they actually want to catch the thief because if they don't, the thief continues to operate.

I'm deeply skeptical. Probably because of my own experience with this. When I was a teen, I was wrongly accused of stealing in the workplace, was subjected to interrogation, declared guilty and fired. I wanted to clear my name so badly that I went to the trouble of taking a lie detector test and sending them the result.

I learned to never cooperate if I'm ever in that situation again. There's no point. Just quit and move on with your life.

Tom Segura has a standup bit in one of his specials about cop reality shows, and how people think talking to the cops is going to work out great for them. "Lawyer up. You can't handle that s**. Everybody's like, 'I'm gonna talk to the cops, and straighten this whole thing out.' You're gonna do 25 to life. Have fun with that, man."

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