ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — Sunset Hills Police are investigating a cash theft at a Jimmy John's. Owner Steve Saladin says he believes two former managers have been stealing around $2,000 a week from him for as much as a year, and maybe even longer.
It all started when Saladin says he noticed more cash orders when comparing days he was on-site, versus days when the two former managers, who he says are husband and wife, were on site. He took it into his own hands to start an investigation of his own.
“It just kind of came to my attention through being in the store myself that the cash was inconsistent between the shifts that I was working and the shifts they’d been working," he said.
Saladin flipped around the surveillance cameras so it would face the drive-thru register and asked close friends to order from the drive-thru and pay with cash.
"My suspicion was they were deleting cash orders," Saladin said.
Saladin submitted his own surveillance footage to police, which he said shows the husband and wife duo stationed at the drive-thru window and the cash register next to it. He said this made it easy for them to take orders, but decline it on the register and pocket the cash for themselves.
On top of all this, he said owning a business is already a whole different beast thanks to the pandemic. He's even had to close a few businesses of his own, and even his Sunset Hills Jimmy John's has come close to closing down.
"As long as your business was open, you had a chance."
At the end of the day, Saladin said his job is not about what he could lose.
"It's about making sure my customers get served and that they go away happy."