Topic: Have you ever had a maintenance person that was a thief?

Have you ever had a maintenance person that was a thief?
For years (I’ve been in the business for about 40) I’ve heard people say “I want to be home when maintenance comes, a worker stole money from me” so many times over the years and I’m calling BS on that. I’ve only known one thief in all the time I’ve been doing this.
Has your experience been different?

I fired a maintenance man because he was breaking into cars taking things, also a manager was fired for stealing money, i do not want maintenance in my apartment without me being there because I've seen it firsthand.

We found 5000.00 worth of charges on our home depot card. HD sent us video and he got tools and sold them. When we fired him he tried to steel the key machine and 4 portables.

Yes. More than once, unfortunately

Jennifer Kotzur I guess I’ve just been lucky. My experience has always been the techs I’ve had were very honest. About half were lazy asses… but honest lazy asses 

I took over a property where the existing staff was there 11 years. Was able to pull expenses down $20k per quarter. They were using the home depot cards to purchase items to run a business off craigslist while supposedly working on work orders. Multiple residents made accusations which we defended at first. This is a common occurrence which is why managers micromanage the orders.

I also had a very personal and invasive experience involving a maintenance person at a community I lived at years ago that ultimately led to the management releasing me from the lease without penalty as a safety precaution.
People have a number of reasons for wanting to be home while someone is in their space. It isn't always about items going missing.or even something malicious.

I’ve had maintenance men steal tools the property bought when they are transferring properties. When they were fired. One who was fired was due to a management company take over and the old maintenance guy was stealing the new maintenance guys property with the new guys name on it.
Haven’t had any maintenance guys steal from residents.
As a renter though, I’ve got cameras.

One of my managers stole thousands in appliances.

In 46 years sadly I’ve had many-many BUT, it’s been the office staff as well as maint

Brenda Summers Borino 46 years is amazing! And I guess I’ve been really lucky, sadly I see a lot of y’all haven’t been.

Brenda Summers Borino - this is very true. I've seen it so many times in so many ways. Leasing out vacants, taking kick backs or allocating funds to different units. Let's not forget accepting cash. It's hard being good in a business like this sometimes

People request this for a reason.
It happens way more times than not, sadly. Can’t blame them for it - blame the assholes who do it and give the good maintenance guys a bad name. However, I bet it’s happening less now days with tons of people having cameras.

Yes I have had maintenance and office employees steal.
New tech was accused by a resident of theft. Tech denies it and resident send us the video. So he lost his job for stealing less than $100 in items.
I had a PM set up a bank account supposedly for a construction company with the same name as the complex. In a couple of months he stole over 20k in rent checks and deposited them in his account.
When he knew he was caught, he left in the middle of the night, leaving his live in girlfriend without a word.
I get an application for unemployment a month later for him. I call the claim rep and tell her that the police are looking for him and I will
Be giving the police the claim rep info.
He was caught due to that and eventually convicted. We would get small restitution checks each month after he got out.

Back in the mid 1980s I was a resident … maint came in, went thru dresser and found checks and took 2 randomly. Figured it out when they cleared the bank. Wrote to his wife for Avon and Tupperware.

All it takes is one.

20 Years, and only once! Allegedly.

Never my maintenance staff. Leasing, well... 

Yes, I have known a few. Actually my sister property had to terminate a Maintenance sup because he was caught on camera going through the residents things and sniffing underwear. It was a simple bulb change and he was terminated immediately. That is just one story and it’s not if theft but yes I have seen a few maintenance steal and it’s sad to me because we are trusted to go into units and even granted legal access per the lease, so robbing, or even going through a residents things is NOT okay!!

In my experience, no. People are just paranoid.

Yep. I had one about 10 years ago that not only stole money, jewelry, and other small items when he was going in for work orders but he was breaking into apartments on the weekends to steal TV’s. We suspected it was him since we had zero break ins before he started working there but didn’t have any proof until one of the residents shot him on a Saturday afternoon. He didn’t die but he was taken to jail and I truly hope he never worked in this industry after that.

One resident had a service request for their bathroom and they woke up to find the tech in the bedroom rummaging through their dresser drawer. Also an assistant manager who accepted cash for rent, providing the resident with a receipt then wrote a check from her own account to cover the rent....and it bounced.

16 years in the industry and I’ve known of two first hand. Not stealing from residents, but from the property/company. Many moons ago, my PM at the time stole appliances and had them installed in her home. I’m talking, all kitchen appliances and entire HVAC system…condenser and air handler. ?
Second was a maint sup that purchased appliances under the property and sold them on Craigslist. I was an assistant manager at the time and to this day still don’t know how multiple appliances costing thousands of dollars each can go unaccounted for and fly under the radar for so long. All of the appliances were only a few years old, so I personally would have questioned the full replacements right off the bat.
As a property manager now, I review the HD orders prior to submission.