As mentioned in a recent column, my parents owned a small department store, and I remember them saying how grateful they were for a stable and loyal staff who worked for them for many years. Sometime during the late 1950s, Dad needed to hire another sales clerk and interviewed several applicants. One night at the dinner table, he mentioned that he had just hired “Susie,” a delightful middle age lady with a southern drawl who had recently moved to town.

Susie quickly added a refreshing spark to the store environment, and Dad commented that hiring her was a smart business decision. Customers loved Susie’s bubbly, outgoing personality, and Dad was pleased with her demonstrated ability to make impressive sales.

Fast forward several months. Even though I was not privy to the details, I got the impression that something was out of kilter at the store. Occasionally, I’d overhear my parents quietly talking “store business” at home, but when they realized I was within earshot, they changed the subject.

Eventually I put bits and pieces of information together and concluded that a sizeable amount of store inventory couldn’t be accounted for. No doubt some shoplifting occurred in our store, but current bookkeeping records indicated the shortage was significant.

Dad suspected the situation may be an inside job and reluctantly notified the police to get advice on how to proceed. He didn’t want to believe one of his own clerks was a thief. Attention was soon focused on Susie, but only my parents and the police had this carefully guarded information. I’m not sure how long the “sting” had been planned, but one day the police showed up at Susies house with a search warrant. Busted! Dad was summoned to her house and identified a large amount of stolen goods, many with price tags still on them.

An inventory of the stolen merchandise was taken, the goods were returned to the store, and Susie was charged with theft. It’s my understanding quite a bit of stolen goods were never recovered, and I don’t know if my parents ever received compensation for them or not. I’m not sure why, but nothing was printed in the newspaper about this incident. Soon after, Susie left town. My parents shared sketchy details about the incident with me, but within a few days the subject was never brought up again.

Have you ever been deceived by someone you trusted?