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He signed into his other camera and they watched the same exact show. This time they could see the computer on the floor sparking and when that happened, the lights turned on rather than just the flashlight the person had been using.
“Got a good angle of the person there,” the officer said.
“Shit,” Cal said.
“Do you know him?” Mia asked.
“Yeah. Tyler Steele. He worked for me. I had to let him go about six months ago though.”
“What did he do?” she asked.
“He stole from me. There was money missing a few times when he worked. People make mistakes and he said he didn’t do it. Or maybe he miscounted. That he’d never been good at math.”
The officer snorted. “You bought that?”
He wanted to snarl. “No. But I gave him a chance to come clean. I let him know that I was aware of what was happening. It stopped after that and I thought we were good. I knew he didn’t have the best life or upbringing and figured maybe he was down on his luck. Shit happens in people’s lives. I gave him extra hours at times to help him out even when I didn’t need the help.”
He didn’t know the officers here right now. He knew most of the Colonie PD, but not these two. They looked young to him too. No one that would have known his father.
“Then why did you fire him?” the officer asked.
“Because though the theft of the money stopped, product was missing. I had him on camera and he knew it.”
“The system that was out in the open?” she asked. “He was crazy enough to steal knowing he was being watched?”
“He was desperate and thought no one would catch him. He was stocking the shelves and tried to slip a bottle here and there off to the side. That is what I’d see. But then I moved the camera the next time he was working and he didn’t realize it and I saw what he was doing. Putting them to the side out of range and then getting them later when he left.”
“You didn’t report it?” the officer asked.
“No.” He didn’t want the kid to have it on his record and now wished that he had. Though it probably wouldn’t have stopped this from happening. Maybe it would have been worse.
“How long was he employed?”
“Just eight months or so,” Cal said. He started to click around. “I’ll have to call my office manager to access his personnel records.”
“We’ve got an address from his license in the system. We’ll send someone over in the morning to get him.”
It was close to three in the morning at this point. No reason to go banging on doors if Tyler moved. He had no clue. Not everyone updated the address on their license.
“If you can get us an estimate of the damages,” the officer said. “Just drop it by and we’ll finish this up. It looks as if he walked out with a few cases and then the alarms went off.”
“Yeah,” he said. Tyler knew enough to grab the good stuff.
“How much do you think he got?” Mia asked him.
“If they are going by retail value, he left with four cases of liquor. Two are valued at around two hundred a bottle. So almost five grand there. Then the other two cases. Less than eight thousand stolen but the damages, significantly more.”
“Without damages, what he took is a class D felony and could be up to seven years in jail.”
Cal ran his hand through his hair. “Jesus. So stupid to ruin your life for this. So that’s the max he’s looking at?”
“Yes,” she said. “A lawyer can get jail time reduced if he has no priors, but we aren’t even talking about the damage done here, Cal.”
“I can’t think right now. I just need to clean this place up before my staff comes in.”
“Let me help,” Mia said. “I brought some more brooms and a bunch of garbage bags.”
“I want to tell you to go home, but you’re not going to listen, are you?” he asked.
