How do we handle a resident's accusation of theft by maintenance person?

Does anyone have any policies/suggestions on how to handle a resident's accusation of theft by maintenance person? One of my residents claims that the maintenance man stole a pair of Airpods that she had on her kitchen table during a scheduled fire alarm inspection yesterday (the tenant was not home). This maintenance man has been with us for over 2 years and has always been trustworthy, to the best of my knowledge. Of course you never know, but I am having a very hard time believing he would steal something. We have never experienced this issue before.

I've encountered this a few times over the past 20 years and always encouraged the resident to file a police report and we would make the individual accused available for questioning. No one has ever filed a report (especially not the one who accused our guy of stealing his weed), and at least one came back and apologized after they found the item in question.

This has happened at a property I previously worked at and the manager had the tenant file a complaint, also required them to file a police report.

I think the resident should make a police report if they believe that’s what happened. (And usually they don’t.)
I think it’s the employers responsibility to have a discussion about the residents accusations and note the employee file that he/she has been counseled over the alleged incident and the employee has an opportunity to respond. You’re able to respond to the resident that you’ve conducted an internal investigation on your end. That way, if there HAPPENS to be another claim, you have an HR record and potentially a police report.
Then, when the resident finds the AirPods in their car, you can update the employee file.
Good luck. It’s always a crappy situation.

Tina Peterson I would never disrespect my team member and treat him as such! I would certainly lose any respect they had for me! Police report by the accuser!!

Barbara Mabry I understand what you’re saying, but it doesn’t have to be an accusatory conversation. It can be as simple as “As you know, Ms. Smith in unit #12 said that she is missing AirPods from her home. I’m sure you can appreciate that I have to ask you if you have seen them or saw them in her home.” The employee says no and you document that there was conversation and you can classify it as your “internal investigation.” Making no effort could expose potential liability if something comes of it down the road.
As you mentioned, you’ve been in this industry a long time. I’m sure you’ve had your share of trustworthy and non trustworthy people on both the employee & resident side. It’s our job to be non bias, professional and thorough.

In my opinion, you don’t want to be in a position where if it happened to be true and/or you show inaction or bias opinion because they’re your employee. Being respected by both the resident and the employee is important. You certainly wouldn’t want your residents to feel like they couldn’t come to Management with concerns, nor would you want employees to feel mistrusted. Our jobs are a fine balance of both. I simply think it is wise to check the boxes on both sides.

I value all of our onsite teams and 100% believe the jobs they do are thankless a lot of the time, however I have seen some employees with poor intentions. They are the few and far between but it happens.

Tina Peterson over the years that did happen on a couple of occasions and I simply agreed with the resident that it was very distressing that that happened and that they should call the police immediately! Informed my team member what had happened and my response to them! Both were treated with compassion and my staff members knew I had their back. That’s how I roll and my maintenance men always followed me to a new property if I left!

Definitely a police report will intimidate them into re-thinking

With it being airpods, the resident probably lost them. Keep note of it though, if they're accused of it more than a few times, it is probably happening. Most times, it's just someone being careless and they want someone else to blame.

I instruct residents to file a police report and let the local authorities handle the matter. If the allegations prove correct I then address the internal HR issue.

that is the correct answer!!!

Thank you so much for all of this advice. I am going to tell them they need to file a police report (I was leaning toward doing this anyway). It is very useful to know that that is the same way you would all handle this.

Absolutely tell them to file a police report. This is most likely a scam. It’s amazing how 99.9% of these accusers never file a police report.

Call the police and going forward, have 2 conduct inspections and/or repairs in her unit.

It is hard to prove! Unless she has cameras??? It is her word against his. I would have told her she needs to file a police report

Air pods have serial numbers . If she has the purchase receipt they can be located . It’s like IPhone find my phone

I always advise to the resident to file a police report and allow the police to investigate the allegation. Most residents do not, then find the item and call to apologize.

Pretty simple with Apple product = “find my” app! Good luck.

With all this virus stuff, why would anyone want to steal something you put in your ears? Yuck

I would definitely stand up for my team, and assure the resident that they are loyal and trustworthy and if it makes them more comfortable we can do work order with a call ahead first and they can choose to be home during that time, but also let them know that it could delay their maintenance requests since we're not allowed to schedule them. And as mentioned above, Suggest they use the find my... app and file a police report if that's what they feel is necessary.

I had this happen to my tech. He was accused of stealing her camera. I assured her that he was our seasoned tech and that we had hope that would not have happened. I told her to contact the Sheriff's department and contact her insurance to file a claim. Which she did not do. Needless to say future work in her unit was nearly impossible to complete with just one tech on our property. 2 years later when she was moving she found it under her bed. The lens had been chewed on by her dog. She apologized to him and to me for her accusations. She was so embarrassed.

Brandy Blazen at least she acknowledged she was wrong.

Brandy Blazen Wow, not many people would go back after that long and admit they were wrong and apologize. Good for her!!!

Happened to my tech one time. In addition to advice above we also required 2 people to attend all work orders going forward. She was accusing us of discrimination as well so one person would hand document what was happening the entire time and the other person conducted the work. That way if we ever needed to go to court we would have hand written account of all activity

Just ask the resident to file a police report and let them handle it .
That will make the resident feels that your office is not hiding anything enough to call the police .

I agree with always having 2 people if possible. If your property is small like mine. You probably only have 1 maintenance. It’s hard to prove without cameras. Suggest tenants get cameras. They are so cheap now.

Does he even have an iPhone? But I’d stand by my team. And yuck, used things such as those.

My husbands lost two paid of them. I’m just saying

The resident should file a police report...they won’t likely file if it’s untrue. If she files, the police sort it out

All good suggestions! I also make it a policy once someone accuses a staff member of stealing not to enter their apartment again without them being home. In over 20:years in this business I have never had one of those accusations actually turn out to be true, and I’m not going to put my staff in a situation to be accused of a crime again.

It's always the maintenance guy !! ..... Well, 35 years in business (2800 units) I would say this accusation has come up maybe 20 times.... I haven's exactly kept a score card, but my recollection is that most were mistaken placements of items that turned up. At lease three were likely thefts by family/visitor (a few confirmed) but, sadly, at least 3 or 4 cases where we were pretty sure resident was correct. Thieves are not too bright and sometimes leave evidence. In one case, the guy showed off his "new watch" to a fellow worker - that one was easy.

Yes, we always encourage resident to file police report. At the very least this shows they are genuine in their belief. Yes, we always bring in the accused(s) and have our 3rd party HR person interview. It has happened twice that another employee was able to provide the needed info to id the culprit.

The tough one is where there is no evidence, yet it leaves a doubt in one's mind... In one case, we set up a "secret camera" in an apt and sent the suspected employee to do some work but, either he chose not to steal that time or perhaps the "secret operation" leaked out. We were never sure. In another case, the same party was accused two months apart on the same property by two diff residents.... Now what?? Lacking evidence of guilt or innocence, we transferred and he quit. Not sure if he quit because his feeling were hurt, or because he realized jig was up.... Either way, our problem was solved... too bad, he was thought to be a good guy.

Hi Ashley-
I would for sure ask the resident to file a police report, and discuss this with the accused. I would also remind the resident that all of your staff and contractors/vendors are bonded and insured, and you don't have those kind of issues with your team. They likely will not file a report and find the ear pods...but they won't tell you they found them. I would also (if it were me) ask the resident if they have proof it was my maintenance guy because nobody wants to work in that kind of environment, when theft is an issue. No proof, no write up! Your team works really hard for you, for everyone to be successful!

We are suppliers to the industry and have had unfortunate experiences on the other end of this situation.
Our policy is to be accompanied by a manager if we are going into any occupied unit. Whether the tenant is home or not. This covers the stealing aspect as well as any other accusation which could manifest itself due to being alone in a unit with a tenant.
Every manager we have dealt with understands this. It covers both of our backs!

About two months after taking over a small property, I was accused of stealing a resident's bicycle. She had complained about 2 appliances in her garage parking space and requested they be moved. I arrived 1/2 hour after the telephone call and moved the appliances. The next day, I received a call from the resident asking, "Why did you steal my bike?" I assured her I did not take the bike and, if it is missing, to report it to the police. She said she would and I should expect to be interviewed because I was the "main suspect." I did not hear from the police about the incident. I always refer tenants to report theft to the police.

It is sad how quickly residents accuse our team members of stealing. My son is in the HVAC business and sent a crew in to do repairs only to have them accused of taking a diamond ring. There were trips to police headquarters, polygraphs and questioning, and a lot of stress he learned that the accuser still had the ring and it was an effort at insurance fraud.
Stand behind your team and call the police. Be sure your service techs are trained on staying cool, not getting mad. I remind all of us; how would you feel if the residents all had a key to your apartment? Understand that they suspect us first thing because we have access.

I tell any resident that it is not uncommon for a resident to blame a seasoned, trusted maintenance member for 'stealing' something from their apartment. I tell them what is common is for the resident to find the misplaced item in a jacket pocket, bottom of their purse, or in their car. So, resident: please take some time to look for that item. If you cannot find it and still feel it was stolen from your apartment by someone, then call and report that to police. Once they have a police report, I will have conversations with ALL staff and the residents for specifics, review keys logs, ect.

I remind the resident that our staff enters multiple apartments per day, without supervision, with all types of valuables, to make repairs in their apartment; not to rip them off as NOTHING in their apartment is worth losing a job.

I do not tolerate residents general, unwarranted accusations of theft. If they accuse a member of the team, they accuse the WHOLE team.

The more information you have, the better position you’re in. I would suggest that you gather as much documentation on your side. Get any notices sent to residents, time stamped key logs, your key control policy, screening process, etc. Then let the resident know you take these matters very seriously and you want to assist. Gather as much additional information from the resident as you can. When exactly did the item go missing? Do they have camera footage? Have they already checked other places in their home or car? Do they have evidence of your employee going through their belongings? Then piece everything together and look for discrepancies. You can even offer to help them file a police report.

My company (KeyTrak) provides electronic key control systems to apartment communities and we’ve seen a few of these scenarios over the years.

A while back one of our customers had several accusations come in from a resident that a maintenance employee had been in their place and stolen stuff. In each case, the KeyTrak system confirmed one of their employees had checked out a key to their unit, but only for a few minutes. Initially they didn’t think he could have done this. Good guy, seemed trustworthy, and didn’t think the key was out long enough for him to do it. But after repeated incidents, they offered to help the resident file a police report and the property turned in their key logs to the police.

Police questioned the maintenance guy and let him go. They initially didn’t think there was enough evidence to do anything. As it turned out, the employee did not ever return to work after police questioning. Police later determined that the guy pawned off the resident’s jewelry at a local pawn shop and skipped town. Eventually the resident was able to get some of their items back.

The resident who filed the claim later wanted the property to pay for recovery costs and lost items, but the fact that the property proactively worked with the police and gave the key logs to them put the ball in the police’s court and the resident ultimately never pursued the matter any further.

This story isn’t intended to imply your resident’s accusations are true by any means. The point is, documentation will help you either way!