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WHO CAN YOU TRUST?????

By Janice Lipka

Real Estate Agent with ERA TEAM IV HOMES

June 05, 2007 03:20 AM

This is a story about our bookkeepers misappropriation of company funds.(this happened several years ago)

If anyone had asked me about our bookkeeper, I would have praised her competency plus the fact that she was a family friend not just an employee.

I should have paid more attention when an Amex bill had several items not related to the company business. However, when asked she said"OH I must have used the company card and not my personal one. I will make the corrections immediately." Which she did. I didn't give this any more thoughts. This should have been a RED FLAG!!!. I never thought to look over old bills.

I had noticed she was spending a lot of time on E-Bay. She was buying enough sweaters for her to change 3 times a day for the entire winter. I was wondering how she was able to spend this much money. However, the charges were not on the company cards. She walked away from a substantial deposit for a vacation house, because it wasn't close enough to the beach. She was buying very expensive show tickets from e-bay. She was also becoming very erratic about the time spent in the office.

I was about to set up a meeting with her to ind out what was going on. But I did not have to have that meeting.

My partner asked me one morning in January how many weeks are there in a year. I thought you have to be kidding! Why do you ask??? The answer nearly wiped me out. It seemed that the bookkeeper was writing herself payroll checks exceeding the normal 52 weeks. She had been doing this for a couple of years. The total that we came up with was $11.000.00.

We called her in for a meeting. If it had been anyone else, the police would have been present and she would have been arrested. She cried and said she was sorry and please do not fire me. I will pay back the money. We told her that she was lucky we were not having her arrested. We did not want her children to know about their mother. None of the money has been paid back. I didn't think it would be.

I still have trouble believing this happened. I thought we were friends. I guess not!!!

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Laurie Mindnich

Centennial, CO

Janice- how horrible. You were a whole lot more generous than I might have been. The best example for her kids would have been for her to pay back the money that she stole from you.

Jun 05, 2007 03:31 AM

Provadus Home Loans

Provadus Home Loans - Marietta, GA

Technology bringing you home.

That is terrible. It is scary to say, but you have to be very careful who you trust. When it comes to money, people seem to have a different character when they work directly with it. Great post!

Jun 05, 2007 03:35 AM

Mana Tulberg

805 County Real Estate - Camarillo, CA

Real Estate Agent - Camarillo CA

That is a terrible story. It is very nice of you to honor her dignity and your friendship.

Jun 05, 2007 03:36 AM

Ronnie Roach

PrimePay Business Services - Kill Devil Hills, NC

Janice,

You have to get the authorities involved - it will happen again to someone else if you don't. Good thing the weather is heating up - no more sweater purchases.

Jeff Fulgham

T.U.P. Realty - Tupelo, MS

Broker E-Pro ABR

Good Bookeepers can make money disappear and you won't even know it was there. We grant them complete control of our funds and have to trust them not to rip us off.

Jun 05, 2007 03:47 AM

Janice Lipka

ERA TEAM IV HOMES - La Grange, NY

Hi Laurie, It was atough decision to walk away from $11,000. But that is what we did. We never did know what she told her husband about being fired. We waited for her to try to collect unemployment. I guess she knew what would happen then.

Jun 05, 2007 05:54 AM

Hi Erik, We no longer have an in-house bookkeeper. We keep them ourselves. We do have an accountant.

Jun 05, 2007 05:55 AM

Hi Mana. Sometimes I regret the decision to arrest her. But at the time we thought it was the best thing to do.

Jun 05, 2007 05:56 AM

Hi Ronnie, A lot of advise we got at the time was to get the authorities involved. We decided not to.

Jun 05, 2007 05:58 AM

Hi Jeff, We had a very expensive lesson.

Jun 05, 2007 05:59 AM

Dick & Sandy Beals

Wilmington Real Estate 4U Wilmington, NC - Wilmington, NC

Funny, I have been a broker in charge of 2 separate companies and it happened at both companies. I guess these people feel real estate companies are easy marks. I would tell you what they were doing except someone might try it. In both cases the perps were sentenced, fined, made restitution, and fired.

Dick Beals

Jun 05, 2007 06:30 AM

HI Dick & Sandy, Hopefully, I will never have to deal with this again. I guess the word friendship was one sided. She actually thought that she desearved the extra money. No wonder she was on Prozac.

Jun 05, 2007 06:37 AM

Debbie Creech

ERA Team IV Homes - Poughkeepsie, NY

I have found that you can't trust anyone.

Jun 18, 2007 07:31 AM

Dianne Barody

Century 21 AmeriSouth Realty - Pensacola, FL

Pensacola Florida Real Estate

Trust is a hard thing when you have been done wrong. You were too generous. I commend you for that. Most people would have called the authorities.

Jun 19, 2007 04:06 AM

Jeff R. Geoghan

Coldwell Banker Realty - Lancaster, PA

REALTOR, Marketing Manager

Wow, thats a tough situation. I'm not sure I would have been so lenient for a willful theft over a long time...hopefully she'll pay it back ASAP.

Jun 19, 2007 04:46 AM

Hi Jeff, I am convinced that the money will never be refunded. I do not know how she can live with guilt every day of her life.

Jun 20, 2007 01:38 AM

Every one of us justifies things at different levels. For her the theft was somehow justifiable - perhaps she felt you made enough and she really needed it. It's amazing how people can rationalize things.

Jun 20, 2007 02:18 AM

WHO CAN YOU TRUST?????

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