$30,000 guns & accessories on company credit card.

[maxwelhse]

An early scam was to buy something at Home Depot on the card, record the purchase, wait until supervisor and RA signed off, then take item back to HD and return it for cash reimbursement. (HD would do that in those days. After the scam came to light they would reimburse onlyto the original card).

FYI, this scam is still a thing. They just return stuff without a receipt and get a gift card, then sell the gift card for cash. This is the primary reason why places have started asking for your DL/ID, phone number, etc to return items without a receipt.

This is also a common shoplifter trick. Lots of places have cracked down on it in recent years though.

 

[KellyinAvon]

I was in when the government card first started. The card itself was a good idea, the implementation less so. As a first line officer supervisor I had to review my subordinates purchases. I soon found out I was fairly unique in conscientiously reviewing purchases. Many supervisors, especially in civil service side, regarded it as another damn piece of paper in their inbox and pencil-whipped their reviews. An early scam was to buy something at Home Depot on the card, record the purchase, wait until supervisor and RA signed off, then take item back to HD and return it for cash reimbursement. (HD would do that in those days. After the scam came to light they would reimburse onlyto the original card).

At LA AFB a GS-13 eventually got caught making shady purchases while TDY and at home, including buying an airplane ticket for his daughter to come home for some wedding. It was so difficult to actually punish civil servants for stuff like this that he just ended up with an unpaid day of leave. Which tended to reinforce the pencil-whip method of review.

When it came time to PCS from the 552 at Tinker I put in my dream sheet to be the 962 computer shop OIC at Kadena. Instead I was offered an assignment with NATO AWACS in Germany.

Two parter here, part 1: Have I asked you when you were with NATO (OTAN) AWACS? The Comm MX OIC at the 932nd in Iceland went there from Keflavik in 98.

Part 2: Pre-GPC days back in 1992 at Tyndall AFB, Panama City, FL (although the Civil Engineers who were developing the grandfather of the bomb robot had one by then) there were a grand total of four of us who could approve the Standard Form 44 purchase order (like a GPC only less convenient). If you've heard this one before don't stop me. I want to hear it again

One day we get a call from Contracting (they hated us, we hated them) because they'd been called by some lawnmower shop in Panama City Beach (not exactly across the street from Tyndall, a pretty good drive) about not being paid for a purchase. We all looked at each other and said, "Who? Where? Never heard of them!"

So we go through all our logs. Every SF 44 is accounted for, none for Joe-Bob's Lawnmowers, Bait, Tackle, and Shrimp (OK, I made that up.)

Back in those days there was a Club-Fed prison on Tyndall. The Department of Corrections had the same SF 44 program that we did. The DoD and the DoC were completely separate, Club-Fed was not a tenant on the base and received no support from base functions such as the 325th Supply Squadron. Among other things the prisoners mowed the grass around the base (so they had a lot of lawnmowers...)

Instead of having a DoC employee handle this, some .gov (gov. back then) type decides to let a prisoner coordinate with the business in PC Beach. The freakin prisoner (minimum security, probably in prison for scamming) scammed Joe-Bob's Lawnmowers, Bait, Tackle, and Shrimp for the lawnmower parts!!

Edit: I think I'll copy/paste this into the Military BS stories thread. It's amazin how many Military BS stories are actually true!!

 

[Kirk Freeman]

All of this is hitting close to home.

 

[KellyinAvon]

All of this is hitting close to home.

Sounding like some of your clients, or you've bought shrimp at a lawnmower place?

 

[iceman4226]

at the company i work for he would probably get a raise for making a profit

 

[Fotoman]

Why risk it for something like this. Why can't people just save up some money?

 

[Alamo]

Two parter here, part 1: Have I asked you when you were with NATO (OTAN) AWACS? The Comm MX OIC at the 932nd in Iceland went there from Keflavik in 98.

I was at the 552 from Sep 82 to May 86, then NATO E-3A Component from May 86 to Dec 91 (essentially two OS long tours back to back).

 

[sgthud]

From my understanding, this went on for 3 years...hell, my company goes through ours with a fine tooth comb every month, and god forbid you can't explain something on it.

 

[sheepdog697]

Atleast it wasnt strippers and cocaine.

 

[Cottonbroker]

Easy way to reduce thefts.

My question is why it took 3 years to catch this guy.

https://www.wevv.com/content/news/B...-Buying-30K-Worth-of-Guns-VCSO-573198151.html

On the brighter side, with the current market the employer should be able to sell and maybe make a profit.

They probably won't be smart enough to do that, or an insurance company will be involved and screw everyone. Its real simple. The penalties for crimes need to start being increased. If you steal something you should have to pay back 10X the value of what you stole. I'd like to throw in some lashings but they probably won't go for that. This way criminals will think twice about stealing things of any value. Plus the victim will be rewarded for their loss and frustration.

 

[wtburnette]

Won't ever happen. The progressives in charge want less repercussions for criminal acts, not more. Unfortunately, as I completely agree with you.