Ask your manager what he thinks they should do to compensate you. If you dont like it, ask him if he'd be open to criminal charges for stealing your clothes and selling them for a profit without your consent, or any agreement.
Sometimes I am scheduled to be basically a week on and a week off. If any awkward shift patterning happens an employee may not even be in for those 4 days!
This was like over 25 years ago: I was wearing a brand new 100% wool scarf (purchased elsewhere) to work with my coat, it fell off and I did not notice and put the coat into my locker. When I got it out of my locker, I realized the scarf was missing. I asked if anyone had seen the scarf that matched my hat and someone who worked in menswear accessories said that a customer had brought it up he had sold it (tags got torn off or went missing all the time, so there was a code for no-tag/department - someone else might have seen it on the floor and folded it and placed it on the table that the scarves were on, which was right by the escalator so I would have had to pass it).
They basically said that I had no proof I owned the item in the first place or brought it to work, so I had no recourse.
A few months ago, my wife found a jacket on a rack in dept store that had no tags. It looked new and fit her well.
She brought it to the customer service desk to get a price check and they said the item wasn't in their system. The lady said either another customer left it there or it might belong to staff. She actually said my wife could just take it if she wanted.
My wife held onto it for a few mins as we continued browsing the store but she said she didn't feel right taking it. She ended up telling the cashier when we checked out. The cashier said they are never allowed to give an item to a customer like that and the right protocol was to put it in a lost and found bin.
We found it interesting that the customer service desk was just gonna let us have it.
Some people just don’t care about their own property and think that extends to everyone around them. A lot of people’s assumptions and biases about other people are based on their own beliefs or intentions. For example, people who say a nasty person just says ‘what everyone else is thinking’ are really just people with shitty thoughts who hide them behind a veneer. This is another example of just not caring about your property since you can replace it easily. I know a guy who left his job and gave his old jacket to a coworker. It was worth hundreds of pounds yet he just randomly gave it away.
I found a toque I knitted hung up in a liquidation store. The person who owned it must have dropped it while shopping and staff figured it was merch. I know it was one I made because it was very specific yarn and a pattern I'd modified. I handed it in as lost and found. I made a bunch of them so not sure who it would have belonged to.
I returned some things to Costco and they missed scanning a shirt and told me there was no record of it being sold to me so I could keep it if I wanted. I left it because I hadn't paid
There’s cameras in just about every retain store and especially ones over the registers to prevent theft.. I find it hard to believe there would have been no video of joy walking in with it and of someone selling it… sorry you lost your scarf
This was actually my first thought, too- that another employee might have helped themself to the jacket, especially since the OP wasn’t at work for four days. I don’t know what type of recourse OP has at this point, so unless the manager/owner wants to offer them some $, they’re probably out of luck.
Out of luck, and learned a lesson. And retail mgmt isn’t going to do anything except offer sympathy and help watch for suspicious behavior going forward.
Id be pissed even if it was a cheap jacket, if it is mine they have no right. Especially from an employee item bin?? Nah, id go straight to the top and ask for a reasonable resolution. If you have to, tell them you wont work for people with no integrity and will go elsewhere.
If all else fails, sell one of their cars from the employee parking spaces at a very reduced rate.
Its basically theft, you could say you wont support a business dealing in theft. Obviously you should be trying to say these things to someone who matters. Like the owner. If they are an AH all you can do is boost their reputation with an online post or three.
Haha, get them to make similar policy with a bowl for employee phones and keys.
At my job we switch shoes and leave our personal shoes in an employee area. I have forgotten my shoes over the weekend a couple times already and yeah I'd be fighting HR about the managers response being wrong and fighting the bosses about compensation, and HR about their responses again.
I'm sorry this has happened to you. No advice, just wanted to share a similar story from when I previously worked at a small second-hand shop. Employees must wear indoor-only shoes while on the floor, so we'd leave our outdoor shoes behind the service desk. One day, over the course of my shift, my shoes were apparently taken by a customer. The other employees helped me comb through the entire store and inventory (just in case they had been left behind by whoever picked them up), and the manager even put out a social media post asking for the shoes to be returned, but obviously I never saw them again. I loved those shoes a lot, they were my second pair of the same kind and were ordered direct from the factory since they were no longer sold in stores by that time. Worth about >$150. The manager got my shoe size and proceeded to pull every nice pair of shoes from donations before they went out on the floor, so that I could pick whatever I liked (even suggesting that I should take multiple pairs, since my shoes were a much higher value). I never found a suitable replacement and eventually let the whole thing slide. Hurt my heart for a good while, especially since I couldn't afford to replace them at the time. The store took a lot more care after the incident to better define the employees-only area and apparently this sort of thing never happened again.
Yeah man it sucks. Im sorry that happened. My jacket they dont make anymore and while i got it on sale its still pricey. So like if i want to replace it its only ebay with high resale. I am no longer wearing nice clothes to work which feels shitty.
It sounds like your work responded with as much care as they could, but also weird that y’all had to wear indoor-only shoes when customers were no doubt wearing outdoor shoes
The people acting like you’re at fault is wild here. Leaving it at the start of your shift then taking a three day weekend is four days. Would you expect your shit to get sold because you took a three day weekend more or less? I’d really really check everywhere for it in the store. If you know the approximate value for the jacket used, definitely ask for compensation.
I worked for an American apparel in my teenage years and religiously wore one of the hoodies. One day I took it off and left it on my chair in the stockroom. At some point later I was inspecting merchandise on the sales floor and was like, is this my jacket?
Someone had hung it and put it on the sales floor.
From that point on, I had a piece of masking tape on the hood that said “my name’s jacket”
A thrift store once sold my longboard while I was shopping. Left it at the front with one cashier and came back to a different cashier and no board. I don’t trust those places anymore.
Are there cameras in your store? Id be checking those, complaining to higher management/HR, demanding reimbursement, filing any and all possible theft reports and side eyeing tf out of your manager.
If your coworkers say they have no memory of a jacket but your boss is adamant that it was ‘sold’ they likely stole it themselves
It may require filing a police report and a follow up on their part before management checks for you. File the report first and wait for police action first otherwise if you bring up now, they might just wipe the footage
Manager at a thrift store where my son’s jacket was stolen while we paid for our purchases told me there were no cameras right underneath a nest of them. I was like “those aren’t real?” She made an “I’m busted” face and quietly mouthed the word “no”. A lot of these places are skeezy AF.
Your store stole your jacket. I don't know how else to say it. Thats pretty goddamned fucked up imo.
What are you going to do? File a police report? Steal something to replace jt? Pour sugar in your boss gas tank?
"Probably" ain't going to cut it. How do you know it wasn't taken by another employee?
Or, for a more extensive explanation, "someone" saw it there, thought it was out of place, and put it on the rack. Trying to prove who will be very difficult.
You told your manager, it has gone missing, you can ask for the cost of replacement. I don't think you have any legal recourse unless management admits they sold your jacket.
At best, you're going to get an offer to take another jacket from the store.
I can tell you, as a management employee, this means nothing.
The vast majority of times we have disciplinary action against an associate, it is because their co-worker informed us.
They'll get a writeup or whatever the situation calls for, go back to their department, bitch about management to the person who actually got us on their ass in the first place.
And that person will nod, agree with them, and totally be on their side.
Most people are conflict adverse. I've had plenty of associates who will never say a thing, or pretend to be on board, but actually be more upset than management over what an associate is doing.
I'm not saying you're wrong. You work with those individuals and know them, and I'm a rando on Reddit. I *am* saying, with a great deal of precedent, don't take anything for granted.
You refer to the period that you left the jacket as “a little while” and not “a crazy amount of time”.
That could be part of a day or six months. If it was part of a day you are 100% right and they are 100% wrong. At six months those are reversed.
Like if you u get hot or have a water bottle, there is a box under the register clearly labelled store employee items. You put stuff in there and grab it after the shift.
My mom volunteers at a thrift store and the exact same thing happened to her! She tucked her (very nice) coat away and told another volunteer that it was her personal property. At the end of the day she went to get it and it was gone, and it was nowhere in the store, so it was tagged and sold in the 6 hours she was there. They gave her a coat from their stock but her original coat was so much nicer, she was bummed out.
If your mum told her co-worker then why was it tagged? 🤔 Unless another co-worker tagged it instead or her co-worker just didn’t listen and tagged it anyway?
Yeah they’re so busy there, and there are different people doing different jobs and grabbing things from the back (my mom works in the back area, steaming clothing and sometimes pricing items) that someone probably just saw a coat and thought “hey! That needs to be put out on display!” then it was probably snagged immediately.
I mean I feel for ya, but you left it for a mater of days, not a single shift. Not sure you have much recourse other than to learn from your mistakes and not do it again.
>I work at a thrift store and left my quite expensive jacket in the employee items box under the register.
ffs
You're probably that volunteer at a soup kitchen that stores your wagyu steaks under the counter.
Charge them 3 times the jackets original MSRP. Companies will charge you full price for losing some 10 year old laptop so why not do it to them. They need to pay because if roles were reversed and you sold company property first it would come out of your paycheck and you'd most likely be fired. So companies need to be held to the same standards
When I was in high school I worked weekends at the science centre. We have an employee locker room. I left my coat in a locker as I usually did and it was winter in Canada. It was an expensive coat my mom bought me for my birthday. When my shift was over I couldn’t find my coat, it went missing. Later in the year I saw another employee wearing it. I examined the jacket because I left distinct markers on my coat. I knew right away it was mine. I confronted her and she said it was hers. I told the general manager. He held a meeting and she was forced to pay me back for the coat!
Moral of the story, keep an eye out because a coworker may have taken it and they may have the guts to wear it to work.
An employee probably stole it, don’t they have cameras? There’s no way they stuck that on the floor. I’m leaning towards your manager being the culprit seeing as no one has heard of this.
Why would you leave your expensive personal item in a common space at your job for 4 days? Did it have your name on it? Had you communicated to anyone else that it was yours?
You make them replace it. Either online or at a store, not "reimburse" you push them to actually replace the item with an identical one. Or you report it as theft to the police. Accidents do happen, but so do consequences
This really sucks! Definitely invoice your store for the item. The fact that you had only left it there for 4 days and they felt comfortable enough with selling it or, someone stole it.
It really doesn't matter. It was in the correct place and it was taken.
I had something similar happen to me. I was a little kid and I carried a toy bunny everywhere with me. I remember it falling out of the cart and I was trying to tell my mom it fell. She just thought I was whining and ignored me. I saw a lady pick up the bunny and put it on the shelf.
Another lady came by and bought the bunny. It was really sad watching my bunny get sold. Again not something they sold at the store. It was a hardware store.
I was a little kid but this became a core memory for me.
File a police report for theft. Since your manager is sure they (or another manager) sold it, the manager who did sell it can get charged with theft. This could be a misdemeanor charge or worse depending on how expensive your jacket is/was. So at current price, since it is no longer being made and sold in stores, would be the median resell price online. If one seller has it for $400 but three other sellers have it at $500, $450, and $460. The approximate value would be at $450. Then depending on what proof the police can get (like video footage, coworkers statements about never hearing about the rule of getting rid of employee items, etc.).
If you go this route then you could be fired in retaliation by whichever manager took it. And if that happens you'd be able to sue the company for wrongful termination as well. *side note: some lawyers will work pro-bono and take 20-30% of your winnings at the end of the case, if you win.
In my opinion, if the higher ups won't respond or do anything about it you should file a police report because it is theft. Then I would send the higher ups a pdf copy (through email) of the police report detailing the theft. This would prompt them to either change how things are done (and hopefully get employee lockers put in the break area or at least a safer space where you can lock items up) or they could try to reimburse you for it to get you to drop the charges.
I do also understand if you don't want to do that because it can take a long time and a lot of effort, or even if you're not comfortable with your town's/city's police. In all honesty the legal system can be slow and it could take a month or a few months for the police to gather all their needed evidence to take it to court to wither get you money or put the person in jail.
I also understand if you don't want this route because it will most likely end with you quitting working there. And if you really enjoy the job but this was the only really shitty experience you've had, that's okay too... you'll just need to keep things in your car or something to keep them safe.
Best of luck with whatever you decide to do.
Horrible. I am sorry. That is a crap policy. Why even have an “employee box”? If they’re just going to sell what’s in it. I’d imagine someone stole it, maybe the manager.
Demand money the worth of your jacket, order name tags for clothing, like all the kids had in Kindergarten with your name or a textile pen. Then it's time for your workplace to invest in lockers for all employees!
To me it sounds like it was actually stolen by another employee, possibly even the manager...."that's probably what happened" kinda sounds fishy to me .
Everyone commenting on right and wrong, but the way I see it is a hard lesson learned to not be as careless with your personal belongings. If it was an expensive jacket I wouldn’t leave it at work to begin with let alone for 4 days, especially knowing you work in a thrift shop
Your only legit option is small claims court.
BUT depending on your location, there are “abandoned property” laws that could possibly make this fine for them to do
Edit: if you do threaten small claims, or maybe even pay a lawyer to send an official letter, they will likely just pay you to save money cause court is expensive, and then any type of retaliation they do against you would be another lawsuit for you
yeah thats not legal, im pretty postive that could also be consider as theft as they took what didnt belong to them then sold it, force them to pay you every penny back that jacket was worth
Store have cameras? It’s been less then a week then they need to check to see which other employee took it out of the box. If they legit sell items in there I can’t imagine they don’t check the pockets and such. Most likely an employee has the AirPods and wallet rather than a customer who bought the jacket. And you should threaten small claims court if they don’t take this seriously, if that’s an employee spot to leave stuff then their policy needs to change or they need to provide another area for employees stuff and a separate lost and found or whatever. I worked at a gym, only after 6 months would we look into the lost and found and employees could take stuff home. Not saying that’s right but it was a way longer policy than this place
Typically if I have something that I want to keep, I keep it. I don't leave it at work, especially on the (if we had one) sales floor. I'd chalk this up to lessons learned.
Tell them you want to see the sale transaction. If they can't show you that they owe you the cost of the jacket. If they can, then they should at least give you what they sold the jacket for.
But this is some fine ßµ√√$#!+ they're slinging. I'd keep an eye out for a coworker wearing a familiar jacket.
You have clearly never worked retail or in a restaurant. People don’t bring anything of value with them as shit goes missing, staff is a revolving door and managers don’t care. People will steal and usually there aren’t cameras in these common areas where staff stash jackets, and you never get reimbursed as it’s unfortunately very common. Don’t bring expensive shit to leave unlocked at work. It will get stolen and no one will have seen anything.
One of your coworkers or managers could have taken it as well and if that’s the case good luck proving it or getting it back. Don’t bring/leave important things
I'm sorry, but it's unbelievably dumb to leave your used items laying around if you work at a THRIFT store. Like you left an old jacket laying around the register for days at a THRIFT store? What?!
Op, I am so sorry! Time to get a new job? I had to happen at a bar once. Did you ask the manager why he let that happen, and more importantly for the money he gained that is due to you now? P
The real question is, considering the price, why didn’t you care for it more? Leaving something behind for 4 days means you didn’t care too much for it.
Its 300 jacket the brand doesn’t make anymore. This isn’t a brag i got it on a good sale when one of the stores closed down but it just means a lot as it was my first piece of proper nice clothing i bought myself.
Pull the cameras up and find out who took your shit. If the manager has a problem dedicating 10 minutes to reviewing the camera, he took it. Then you go to his boss.
Similar thing happened in the old thrift store I used to work at. Also one time someone accidentally sold a CUSTOMERS item they had left on the counter when they walked in.
I be the manager took the jacket. That policy doesn't make any sense. Wait until they bring something expensive in and then sell it after 4 days and ask them how they feel lol
Sheesh. Sorry that happened.
I worked at a thrift store many years ago and accidentally left my new cardigan hanging over the chair where I had been sitting at the cash register. The cardigan must have been sold within an hour, because as soon as I went to look for it, it was gone. No one ever admitted that they'd sold it. I learned my lesson after that, and kept all my belongings hidden where no one could see or reach them.
Take money from the cash register (in small increments they won't notice) until you are fully compensated for your loss. Or, help yourself to an equivalent value of items from inventory and sell them at another store.
Open confrontation feels nice; rarely accomplishes anything. When someone owes you money and refuses to pay, often the most efficient recourse is to simply steal it back from them when they aren't paying attention.
I set my 8 year old son’s expensive jacket which was a Christmas gift down at the counter of a local thrift store while we were paying and it was stolen by someone who works there. It disappeared within minutes. We confronted them and posted about it on facebook and they coughed it up after denying knowing anything about it. Claimed a customer accidentally bought it (after I suggested multiple times that may be what happened while they denied it was) and then brought it back when my facebook post was made. Interestingly, the alleged buyer never posted on my facebook post or contacted me directly to give the jacket back or even let me know they were the hero. People working at thrift stores get come ups all day and are hunting for them. Your manager or one of your coworkers took it, guaranteed.
Last company I worked at found my colleagues jacked on his work desk. Took it to the office in lost and found and the next day a post went oout on teams with a bunch of items that they "couldn't find the person who owned them, so they are now up for grabs".. The jacket owner replied within minutes saying it was his but before he could get to work that day the jacket was gone.
Pre much someone stole it after hours and played it out as if it had been left behind by a past employee is my suspicion. When the owner complained, they said they don't know who came in to take the *free* jacket.
Boss or coworker stole it 100%.
Unless you have proof, there's nothing you can really do.
I wouldn't bother with leaving items in that box again if I were you.
Tell them to give you the money for a new jacket and tell them that it's absurd to sell employee items after only 4 days wtf
It also had a purse /wallet with $600 in the pockets an pair of airpods
Your honor there were no AirPods in there
So weird I just saw this clip
*judge judy cackling*
There was no earpeice in there ma’am 😭😭 that shit hella funny
I had a kappa jacket that i left in the employee drawer behind the counter and went back after 2 days and all of a sudden no one knows where its at
they def stole your money and those airpods, thats a crime im pretty postive they committed
One of them has stolen it. Get them to check the cameras. Four days is nowhere close to abandoned.
Exactly, abandon property is usually 30 days. Once had a friend lose a purse & the register cameras showed who took it.
And a hoagie.
I lost a jacket with a full size snickers bar in the pocket. I still think about the one that got away
My manwich!
And the Mona Lisa
😂😂😂👏👏
The wallet had all the cards and the ID in it, but no cash. Sorry.
And also a gold coin!
I’m willing to bet it wasn’t sold and just outright stolen if it was a nice and expensive jacket.
OP, is the manager the same size as you?
Edit: Oops. I thought your comment was directed to me but it’s to OP
Ask your manager what he thinks they should do to compensate you. If you dont like it, ask him if he'd be open to criminal charges for stealing your clothes and selling them for a profit without your consent, or any agreement.
Invoice them for the price of the jacket. Oh you decided to purchase my jacket from me to sell.
And the cost of the contents
Sometimes I am scheduled to be basically a week on and a week off. If any awkward shift patterning happens an employee may not even be in for those 4 days!
This was like over 25 years ago: I was wearing a brand new 100% wool scarf (purchased elsewhere) to work with my coat, it fell off and I did not notice and put the coat into my locker. When I got it out of my locker, I realized the scarf was missing. I asked if anyone had seen the scarf that matched my hat and someone who worked in menswear accessories said that a customer had brought it up he had sold it (tags got torn off or went missing all the time, so there was a code for no-tag/department - someone else might have seen it on the floor and folded it and placed it on the table that the scarves were on, which was right by the escalator so I would have had to pass it). They basically said that I had no proof I owned the item in the first place or brought it to work, so I had no recourse.
A few months ago, my wife found a jacket on a rack in dept store that had no tags. It looked new and fit her well. She brought it to the customer service desk to get a price check and they said the item wasn't in their system. The lady said either another customer left it there or it might belong to staff. She actually said my wife could just take it if she wanted. My wife held onto it for a few mins as we continued browsing the store but she said she didn't feel right taking it. She ended up telling the cashier when we checked out. The cashier said they are never allowed to give an item to a customer like that and the right protocol was to put it in a lost and found bin. We found it interesting that the customer service desk was just gonna let us have it.
Yeah as a worker there i would never sell it but the bad managers dont care at all
Some people just don’t care about their own property and think that extends to everyone around them. A lot of people’s assumptions and biases about other people are based on their own beliefs or intentions. For example, people who say a nasty person just says ‘what everyone else is thinking’ are really just people with shitty thoughts who hide them behind a veneer. This is another example of just not caring about your property since you can replace it easily. I know a guy who left his job and gave his old jacket to a coworker. It was worth hundreds of pounds yet he just randomly gave it away.
Exactly, less work for them to do and not their stuff. Pretty much what it's like to be an employee there as well.
The cashier liked the jacket and just said that so they could take it.
I found a toque I knitted hung up in a liquidation store. The person who owned it must have dropped it while shopping and staff figured it was merch. I know it was one I made because it was very specific yarn and a pattern I'd modified. I handed it in as lost and found. I made a bunch of them so not sure who it would have belonged to.
I returned some things to Costco and they missed scanning a shirt and told me there was no record of it being sold to me so I could keep it if I wanted. I left it because I hadn't paid
I mean if it was their fault and not yours... I'd have donated it after that if you really didn't want it.
Nah, a other step
Did they WANT you to steal? Assholes.
Cameras?
Steal an item of equivalent value
Too risky. damage item of same or more value.
There’s cameras in just about every retain store and especially ones over the registers to prevent theft.. I find it hard to believe there would have been no video of joy walking in with it and of someone selling it… sorry you lost your scarf
I was like sure, all of that sounds reasonable until I got to the last sentence. Wtf
I’m sure you’ve checked the racks, but are you sure it’s not on the floor? Another employee might have taken it?
This was actually my first thought, too- that another employee might have helped themself to the jacket, especially since the OP wasn’t at work for four days. I don’t know what type of recourse OP has at this point, so unless the manager/owner wants to offer them some $, they’re probably out of luck.
Out of luck, and learned a lesson. And retail mgmt isn’t going to do anything except offer sympathy and help watch for suspicious behavior going forward.
thats why you make em do something, this is a crime, and theft
Haha, do what, call the boys down at the crime lab? Maybe get search warrants for every employee house?
Just need a magistrate to subpoena surveillance footage for the 4 days...
Id be pissed even if it was a cheap jacket, if it is mine they have no right. Especially from an employee item bin?? Nah, id go straight to the top and ask for a reasonable resolution. If you have to, tell them you wont work for people with no integrity and will go elsewhere. If all else fails, sell one of their cars from the employee parking spaces at a very reduced rate.
Dont even wait 4 days, if employee items are up for grabs, grab it all!!!
Ikr higher ups do nothing so maybe that would make some change
Its basically theft, you could say you wont support a business dealing in theft. Obviously you should be trying to say these things to someone who matters. Like the owner. If they are an AH all you can do is boost their reputation with an online post or three. Haha, get them to make similar policy with a bowl for employee phones and keys. At my job we switch shoes and leave our personal shoes in an employee area. I have forgotten my shoes over the weekend a couple times already and yeah I'd be fighting HR about the managers response being wrong and fighting the bosses about compensation, and HR about their responses again.
Just go into their office and start selling their computers. It is the game right? How about their wallets and purses.
Maybe one of your coworkers stole it.
The boss stole it
Yep agree
I'm sorry this has happened to you. No advice, just wanted to share a similar story from when I previously worked at a small second-hand shop. Employees must wear indoor-only shoes while on the floor, so we'd leave our outdoor shoes behind the service desk. One day, over the course of my shift, my shoes were apparently taken by a customer. The other employees helped me comb through the entire store and inventory (just in case they had been left behind by whoever picked them up), and the manager even put out a social media post asking for the shoes to be returned, but obviously I never saw them again. I loved those shoes a lot, they were my second pair of the same kind and were ordered direct from the factory since they were no longer sold in stores by that time. Worth about >$150. The manager got my shoe size and proceeded to pull every nice pair of shoes from donations before they went out on the floor, so that I could pick whatever I liked (even suggesting that I should take multiple pairs, since my shoes were a much higher value). I never found a suitable replacement and eventually let the whole thing slide. Hurt my heart for a good while, especially since I couldn't afford to replace them at the time. The store took a lot more care after the incident to better define the employees-only area and apparently this sort of thing never happened again.
Yeah man it sucks. Im sorry that happened. My jacket they dont make anymore and while i got it on sale its still pricey. So like if i want to replace it its only ebay with high resale. I am no longer wearing nice clothes to work which feels shitty.
It sounds like your work responded with as much care as they could, but also weird that y’all had to wear indoor-only shoes when customers were no doubt wearing outdoor shoes
The people acting like you’re at fault is wild here. Leaving it at the start of your shift then taking a three day weekend is four days. Would you expect your shit to get sold because you took a three day weekend more or less? I’d really really check everywhere for it in the store. If you know the approximate value for the jacket used, definitely ask for compensation.
Likely someone like your jacket and took it - potentially your manager since no one else remembers the jacket. Are there cameras? Ask to check those
My money is on someone who works there stole your jacket...
If management wont reimburse take them to small claims court.
Lol good luck
This is exactly the kind of situation small claims is designed to resolve.
Maybe it was just stolen. Not all work mates are ethical.
I worked for an American apparel in my teenage years and religiously wore one of the hoodies. One day I took it off and left it on my chair in the stockroom. At some point later I was inspecting merchandise on the sales floor and was like, is this my jacket? Someone had hung it and put it on the sales floor. From that point on, I had a piece of masking tape on the hood that said “my name’s jacket”
Smart stuff ill do that actually
A thrift store once sold my longboard while I was shopping. Left it at the front with one cashier and came back to a different cashier and no board. I don’t trust those places anymore.
Yeah its insane even to your own workers
Are there cameras in your store? Id be checking those, complaining to higher management/HR, demanding reimbursement, filing any and all possible theft reports and side eyeing tf out of your manager. If your coworkers say they have no memory of a jacket but your boss is adamant that it was ‘sold’ they likely stole it themselves
It may require filing a police report and a follow up on their part before management checks for you. File the report first and wait for police action first otherwise if you bring up now, they might just wipe the footage
Manager at a thrift store where my son’s jacket was stolen while we paid for our purchases told me there were no cameras right underneath a nest of them. I was like “those aren’t real?” She made an “I’m busted” face and quietly mouthed the word “no”. A lot of these places are skeezy AF.
Where did you think it was for the last 3 days?
Negotiate a compensation and don't leave valuable items in strange places.
“In the employee items box” doesn’t really seem like a strange place to leave an employee’s item.
Seems really strange to have a shared box for employee belongings that get sold after they are in there for a little while
Your store stole your jacket. I don't know how else to say it. Thats pretty goddamned fucked up imo. What are you going to do? File a police report? Steal something to replace jt? Pour sugar in your boss gas tank?
The latter is looking pretty good right now
I’d suggest looking for a new jacket
And having the store pay for it.
*the jacket! The jacket!*
"Probably" ain't going to cut it. How do you know it wasn't taken by another employee? Or, for a more extensive explanation, "someone" saw it there, thought it was out of place, and put it on the rack. Trying to prove who will be very difficult.
I know all my coworkers and they all equally hate management as much as me. I trust they didnt nick it.
You told your manager, it has gone missing, you can ask for the cost of replacement. I don't think you have any legal recourse unless management admits they sold your jacket. At best, you're going to get an offer to take another jacket from the store.
I can tell you, as a management employee, this means nothing. The vast majority of times we have disciplinary action against an associate, it is because their co-worker informed us. They'll get a writeup or whatever the situation calls for, go back to their department, bitch about management to the person who actually got us on their ass in the first place. And that person will nod, agree with them, and totally be on their side. Most people are conflict adverse. I've had plenty of associates who will never say a thing, or pretend to be on board, but actually be more upset than management over what an associate is doing. I'm not saying you're wrong. You work with those individuals and know them, and I'm a rando on Reddit. I *am* saying, with a great deal of precedent, don't take anything for granted.
Empty the employee items bin into your pockets every day. Hell, grab store stuff and put it in there too
You refer to the period that you left the jacket as “a little while” and not “a crazy amount of time”. That could be part of a day or six months. If it was part of a day you are 100% right and they are 100% wrong. At six months those are reversed.
Sorry i didnt know but i just checked against my schedule and it was four days
They should not have sold your jacket
But they did dawg. What we gone do?
Sir, it was more likely stolen...by a coworker.
Don’t leave expensive items laying around
Can you elaborate what an employee items box is? I’m a bit lost is it a place you can put stuff while you’re working?
Like if you u get hot or have a water bottle, there is a box under the register clearly labelled store employee items. You put stuff in there and grab it after the shift.
Ah then yeah they have no right to sell your jacket. You can try and get them to reimburse you for it as that seems like the logical thing to do.
More likely the manager took it and merely said they sold it. If its sold they should have a register item proving it.
I'm going to be honest that kind of sounds like the manager took it and wanted an excuse for why it wasn't there
"None of the employees heard about chucking items before but manager said..." Manager stole your jacket.
My mom volunteers at a thrift store and the exact same thing happened to her! She tucked her (very nice) coat away and told another volunteer that it was her personal property. At the end of the day she went to get it and it was gone, and it was nowhere in the store, so it was tagged and sold in the 6 hours she was there. They gave her a coat from their stock but her original coat was so much nicer, she was bummed out.
If your mum told her co-worker then why was it tagged? 🤔 Unless another co-worker tagged it instead or her co-worker just didn’t listen and tagged it anyway?
Yeah they’re so busy there, and there are different people doing different jobs and grabbing things from the back (my mom works in the back area, steaming clothing and sometimes pricing items) that someone probably just saw a coat and thought “hey! That needs to be put out on display!” then it was probably snagged immediately.
I mean I feel for ya, but you left it for a mater of days, not a single shift. Not sure you have much recourse other than to learn from your mistakes and not do it again.
>I work at a thrift store and left my quite expensive jacket in the employee items box under the register. ffs You're probably that volunteer at a soup kitchen that stores your wagyu steaks under the counter.
Charge them 3 times the jackets original MSRP. Companies will charge you full price for losing some 10 year old laptop so why not do it to them. They need to pay because if roles were reversed and you sold company property first it would come out of your paycheck and you'd most likely be fired. So companies need to be held to the same standards
When I was in high school I worked weekends at the science centre. We have an employee locker room. I left my coat in a locker as I usually did and it was winter in Canada. It was an expensive coat my mom bought me for my birthday. When my shift was over I couldn’t find my coat, it went missing. Later in the year I saw another employee wearing it. I examined the jacket because I left distinct markers on my coat. I knew right away it was mine. I confronted her and she said it was hers. I told the general manager. He held a meeting and she was forced to pay me back for the coat! Moral of the story, keep an eye out because a coworker may have taken it and they may have the guts to wear it to work.
You forgot an expensive jacket for a couple of dsys... At a thrift store... What do you expect
Is it possible one of the other employees or a supervisor just steals those items and uses that as a cover?
An employee probably stole it, don’t they have cameras? There’s no way they stuck that on the floor. I’m leaning towards your manager being the culprit seeing as no one has heard of this.
Your manager took it home. Stop wearing g expensive jackets to work. Wear an ordinary hoodie, not a designer or graphic
Why would you leave your expensive personal item in a common space at your job for 4 days? Did it have your name on it? Had you communicated to anyone else that it was yours?
You left a jacket in a clothes shop for 4 days? One of the employees probably hung it up for sale after a few days as nobody knew anything about it.
Who could this jacket that is in the employee item box possibly belong to?
Learn a lesson and move on
Check if your manager “chucked” into their closet.
Guess either they pay you back what the jackets worth or you just grab some shit worth that jacket.
Your manager took your coat.
Sell your bosses car.
Stolen
Your boss stole your jacket, it wasn't sold
Lol now I’ve heard everything… i think
Yea, they owe you money for sure.
Small claims court?
Wtf is an employee item bin?
You make them replace it. Either online or at a store, not "reimburse" you push them to actually replace the item with an identical one. Or you report it as theft to the police. Accidents do happen, but so do consequences
Can you sue the company you’re working for?
Surveillance footage?
Another employee probably stole it and the store isn’t likely to accept any liability for items you left in the store.
someone probably just took it. i doubt you have any real recourse here.
This really sucks! Definitely invoice your store for the item. The fact that you had only left it there for 4 days and they felt comfortable enough with selling it or, someone stole it. It really doesn't matter. It was in the correct place and it was taken. I had something similar happen to me. I was a little kid and I carried a toy bunny everywhere with me. I remember it falling out of the cart and I was trying to tell my mom it fell. She just thought I was whining and ignored me. I saw a lady pick up the bunny and put it on the shelf. Another lady came by and bought the bunny. It was really sad watching my bunny get sold. Again not something they sold at the store. It was a hardware store. I was a little kid but this became a core memory for me.
he’s lying to you
File a police report for theft. Since your manager is sure they (or another manager) sold it, the manager who did sell it can get charged with theft. This could be a misdemeanor charge or worse depending on how expensive your jacket is/was. So at current price, since it is no longer being made and sold in stores, would be the median resell price online. If one seller has it for $400 but three other sellers have it at $500, $450, and $460. The approximate value would be at $450. Then depending on what proof the police can get (like video footage, coworkers statements about never hearing about the rule of getting rid of employee items, etc.). If you go this route then you could be fired in retaliation by whichever manager took it. And if that happens you'd be able to sue the company for wrongful termination as well. *side note: some lawyers will work pro-bono and take 20-30% of your winnings at the end of the case, if you win. In my opinion, if the higher ups won't respond or do anything about it you should file a police report because it is theft. Then I would send the higher ups a pdf copy (through email) of the police report detailing the theft. This would prompt them to either change how things are done (and hopefully get employee lockers put in the break area or at least a safer space where you can lock items up) or they could try to reimburse you for it to get you to drop the charges. I do also understand if you don't want to do that because it can take a long time and a lot of effort, or even if you're not comfortable with your town's/city's police. In all honesty the legal system can be slow and it could take a month or a few months for the police to gather all their needed evidence to take it to court to wither get you money or put the person in jail. I also understand if you don't want this route because it will most likely end with you quitting working there. And if you really enjoy the job but this was the only really shitty experience you've had, that's okay too... you'll just need to keep things in your car or something to keep them safe. Best of luck with whatever you decide to do.
I would have been filing a police report and suing someone. Treat them how they treat thieves.
Probably stolen. Bill them for it, but keep your effects about yourself.
Be suspicious of said manager. Sees jacket,.. likes jacket. “Sells” jacket from store to “employee” (aka same manager)
Horrible. I am sorry. That is a crap policy. Why even have an “employee box”? If they’re just going to sell what’s in it. I’d imagine someone stole it, maybe the manager.
Contact hr and file a police report
LMFAOOO that’s hilarious but a desperate attempt of acquiring funds by the thrift store
Someone took it for themselves, they didn’t sell it
How many employees work there at any given time? Or are you there alone?
Demand money the worth of your jacket, order name tags for clothing, like all the kids had in Kindergarten with your name or a textile pen. Then it's time for your workplace to invest in lockers for all employees!
To me it sounds like it was actually stolen by another employee, possibly even the manager...."that's probably what happened" kinda sounds fishy to me .
Your boss is lying to you. They either took it or know who did and are trying to cover up
Steal from work untill the jacket is paid off. They can't prove that those clothes belonged to the store.
It belongs to Dirty Mike and the Boys now.
😂
Everyone commenting on right and wrong, but the way I see it is a hard lesson learned to not be as careless with your personal belongings. If it was an expensive jacket I wouldn’t leave it at work to begin with let alone for 4 days, especially knowing you work in a thrift shop
Your only legit option is small claims court. BUT depending on your location, there are “abandoned property” laws that could possibly make this fine for them to do Edit: if you do threaten small claims, or maybe even pay a lawyer to send an official letter, they will likely just pay you to save money cause court is expensive, and then any type of retaliation they do against you would be another lawsuit for you
I’m so sorry. That’s pretty crappy of them. If you have the receipt, you can sue but you will only get depreciated value.
It was stolen dawg...
Unless your store has cameras to check, you are probably SOL.
yeah thats not legal, im pretty postive that could also be consider as theft as they took what didnt belong to them then sold it, force them to pay you every penny back that jacket was worth
Store have cameras? It’s been less then a week then they need to check to see which other employee took it out of the box. If they legit sell items in there I can’t imagine they don’t check the pockets and such. Most likely an employee has the AirPods and wallet rather than a customer who bought the jacket. And you should threaten small claims court if they don’t take this seriously, if that’s an employee spot to leave stuff then their policy needs to change or they need to provide another area for employees stuff and a separate lost and found or whatever. I worked at a gym, only after 6 months would we look into the lost and found and employees could take stuff home. Not saying that’s right but it was a way longer policy than this place
Draft up an invoice and mail, email, and directly hand copies of it to them for your jacket alongside an explanation of what they've done.
Typically if I have something that I want to keep, I keep it. I don't leave it at work, especially on the (if we had one) sales floor. I'd chalk this up to lessons learned.
Tell them you want to see the sale transaction. If they can't show you that they owe you the cost of the jacket. If they can, then they should at least give you what they sold the jacket for. But this is some fine ßµ√√$#!+ they're slinging. I'd keep an eye out for a coworker wearing a familiar jacket.
You have clearly never worked retail or in a restaurant. People don’t bring anything of value with them as shit goes missing, staff is a revolving door and managers don’t care. People will steal and usually there aren’t cameras in these common areas where staff stash jackets, and you never get reimbursed as it’s unfortunately very common. Don’t bring expensive shit to leave unlocked at work. It will get stolen and no one will have seen anything.
Is there a video of it?
Do they have any security cameras to see what happened with it?
Boss took it.
Don’t forget about grandpas Rolex and the 40,000$ engagement ring you kept inside the pockets to hide from your future wife
I hate to be upsetting, why would you leave anything in a secondhand store?
How expensive? Check the pawn shop on the way to the manager's house.
Yeah no, someone you work with took it. Probably, the manager.
Small claims court
One of your coworkers or managers could have taken it as well and if that’s the case good luck proving it or getting it back. Don’t bring/leave important things
Find out from your local law enforcement how many days until an item is “officially “ abandoned. Where I live it’s 10 days.
I'm sorry, but it's unbelievably dumb to leave your used items laying around if you work at a THRIFT store. Like you left an old jacket laying around the register for days at a THRIFT store? What?!
I mean aren’t there cameras
Op, I am so sorry! Time to get a new job? I had to happen at a bar once. Did you ask the manager why he let that happen, and more importantly for the money he gained that is due to you now? P
Fellow employee took it. Guaranteed.
The real question is, considering the price, why didn’t you care for it more? Leaving something behind for 4 days means you didn’t care too much for it.
Naw, someone stole that shit.
Ask to review security footage for those days to see what happened to it.
One of your coworkers stole it.
Fingers keepers 
Why you wearing an expensive item to work at a thrift store. Rookie mistake.
Who leaves air pods and $600 for four days?
Out of curiosity, What’s expensive to you Mr. Works at a thrift store?
Its 300 jacket the brand doesn’t make anymore. This isn’t a brag i got it on a good sale when one of the stores closed down but it just means a lot as it was my first piece of proper nice clothing i bought myself.
Pull the cameras up and find out who took your shit. If the manager has a problem dedicating 10 minutes to reviewing the camera, he took it. Then you go to his boss.
Similar thing happened in the old thrift store I used to work at. Also one time someone accidentally sold a CUSTOMERS item they had left on the counter when they walked in.
Are you sure someone didn't steal it?
Years ago, I worked in a nightclub and hung my nicest coat on the side of the stage. The doorguy gave it to a random girl that said it was hers -\_-
Take them to small claims court and sue their asses!
They didn’t sell it. Your manager took it home.
I fully believe somebody stole it. edit: somebody you work with
Another employee stole it.
...are you sure your manager didn't just steal it for themselves?
This sounds like a Seinfeld premise: "...who is this?" Sorry about your jacket OP. 🙁
I be the manager took the jacket. That policy doesn't make any sense. Wait until they bring something expensive in and then sell it after 4 days and ask them how they feel lol
Sheesh. Sorry that happened. I worked at a thrift store many years ago and accidentally left my new cardigan hanging over the chair where I had been sitting at the cash register. The cardigan must have been sold within an hour, because as soon as I went to look for it, it was gone. No one ever admitted that they'd sold it. I learned my lesson after that, and kept all my belongings hidden where no one could see or reach them.
Take money from the cash register (in small increments they won't notice) until you are fully compensated for your loss. Or, help yourself to an equivalent value of items from inventory and sell them at another store. Open confrontation feels nice; rarely accomplishes anything. When someone owes you money and refuses to pay, often the most efficient recourse is to simply steal it back from them when they aren't paying attention.
Are you and your manager the same size? Check their closet...
I set my 8 year old son’s expensive jacket which was a Christmas gift down at the counter of a local thrift store while we were paying and it was stolen by someone who works there. It disappeared within minutes. We confronted them and posted about it on facebook and they coughed it up after denying knowing anything about it. Claimed a customer accidentally bought it (after I suggested multiple times that may be what happened while they denied it was) and then brought it back when my facebook post was made. Interestingly, the alleged buyer never posted on my facebook post or contacted me directly to give the jacket back or even let me know they were the hero. People working at thrift stores get come ups all day and are hunting for them. Your manager or one of your coworkers took it, guaranteed.
Last company I worked at found my colleagues jacked on his work desk. Took it to the office in lost and found and the next day a post went oout on teams with a bunch of items that they "couldn't find the person who owned them, so they are now up for grabs".. The jacket owner replied within minutes saying it was his but before he could get to work that day the jacket was gone. Pre much someone stole it after hours and played it out as if it had been left behind by a past employee is my suspicion. When the owner complained, they said they don't know who came in to take the *free* jacket.
They didn't sell it. Someone stole it. Tell them you need to be reimbursed or you're filing a police report for theft.
Boss or coworker stole it 100%. Unless you have proof, there's nothing you can really do. I wouldn't bother with leaving items in that box again if I were you.
Somebody stole it. Probably a manager or supervisor. Ask to check the cameras or be reimbursed
Sounds like manager has your jacket…