Thanks, thanks SO much

[Android Kaeli]

About 7:30 or so, I was straightening up and putting returns away on the art/seasonal side of Random Craft Store. I had been talking to the closing MOD about a few things, and I was going to the art section from the seasonal section with some returns for that section.

I saw some paint on the floor when I went by the art section, which isn't all that odd since there's a couple of patches here and there with paint. What was odd was that there was paint on the art poster board rack and on a bunch of poster boards. Great, wonderful -- some idiot decided to squirt art paint on the poster boards. So I looked around the aisle, didn't see the tube of paint right away so I went to the aisle with the actual art paint [an aisle up].

I at the fucking mess that was in that aisle.

There was paint all over the front of one of the brush sections, one brush had to be damaged out because it had been used to smear the paint. Gobs of different colored paint had been squirted onto the jars of paint underneath. Even more paint had been put onto several other paint racks. There was even paint on several bottles of other items we sell.

In total, it took me and the closing MOD about an hour and a half to clean up the mess [even then there's still paint on the floor and a little bit on the poster board rack], and probably about $75-$90 worth of paint and poster board had to be damaged out.

[Rantsylvania 6-5000]

It would sure be nice if we got to catch these lowlives in the act for a change!

[XCashier]

In total, it took me and the closing MOD about an hour and a half to clean up the mess [even then there's still paint on the floor and a little bit on the poster board rack], and probably about $75-$90 worth of paint and poster board had to be damaged out.

Aww, man! All that lovely paint, wasted. Bet it was the expensive stuff too (oils? gouache?). Not to mention all the work you had to do to clean it up, like you didn't already have enough work to do.

Perhaps a camera setup in the paint department, or locking things in a display case until someone wants to buy them? It's a shame jackasses like these have to ruin everything for good customers who appreciate and want to buy quality merchandise.

[Android Kaeli]

There were two tubes of really good oil paint, but the rest was the mid-priced acryllic paint [I'd say about $4-$6 per tube]. The poster board made the bulk of it, though -- the cheapest art board that was damaged out was $3 and that's per sheet.

Oh, I was glad that all but two aisles were already cleaned up on my side but yeah, I had things to do other then cleaning up the mess that the jackasses that decided to make. I have a very strong hunch of who it was, but unforunately I can't prove it.

Another unforunate thing is that we don't, yet, have cameras in that area. Boss Man has managed to get the head offices to spend some money on getting a couple of cameras set up in other area's but can't convince cooperate to get them by the art section. And I've been telling management for years to set up the entire store under lock and key, at least the areas that get a lot of theft and crap like the above.

[Rebel1012]

Its criminal damage, if you have CCTV of the incident give it to the police. Slim chance they may know the person or people that caused the mess and they can be charged for it....

[Thatgirl71]

We get that all the time in my store, we have a huge arts and crafts department and at least once or twice a day one of us is sent over to clean and straighten it out and wouldn't you know, some fucktard has opened tubes of paints and spread them everywhere.

Some day I hope to catch the bastard.

[Andara Bledin]

I would check what cameras you do have for anyone that has paint on them that didn't when they arrived. There's a good chance that causing that much mess left some evidence on the perpetrator.

^-.-^

[Android Kaeli]

Its criminal damage, if you have CCTV of the incident give it to the police. Slim chance they may know the person or people that caused the mess and they can be charged for it....

Problem: head offices refuses to prosecute and do anything more then tell us to give them GREAT customer service and clean the mess up afterwards.

Even if there's video proof, even if there's witnesses willing to tesify, even if the SM is willing to press charges, there's nothing else we can do. I wish there was, but there's nothing more we can do.

[Andara Bledin]

Hmm... Who ends up paying the cost for the damage?

If it's someone other than the company, I bet they'd be willing to put the pressure on to go after the perpetrators.

If it's the company itself, well... you have my sympathy.

^-.-^

[dbuzman]

Hmm... Who ends up paying the cost for the damage?

I know what you are saying but we all know in actuality the customers pay the cost for the damage in higher prices to make up for the losses.

[Andara Bledin]

Well, of course it's society that really bears the cost, but I'm just talking about the next step in the chain.

Whose books does that sort of thing show up on as a negative figure?

^-.-^

[mikoyan29]

Problem: head offices refuses to prosecute and do anything more then tell us to give them GREAT customer service and clean the mess up afterwards.

Even if there's video proof, even if there's witnesses willing to tesify, even if the SM is willing to press charges, there's nothing else we can do. I wish there was, but there's nothing more we can do.

To hell with that. All of us decent folk that don't destroy store property end up paying for it in the long run. But I guess doing the right thing these days only gets you screwed.

[Android Kaeli]

I really can't believe this, but I found something interesting out tonight when I came in. Seems like we DID have some sort of cage system in place for the paint, some of the fixtures for it were in the back but never put in place until sometime today. I can't really say for sure if we have all the parts or if this is just something that we get a little bit of but not everything else to make sure it doesn't happen again. I don't even know if Boss Man was waiting for something like this to happen so he'd have an excuse to put it up.

I also found out that my original estimate of $75-$90 was totally wrong. Damage done was WELL OVER $120. And this is for about twenty sheets of poster board and about ten or so tubes of artist paint. The amount is small in comparison in light of the other crap that's been stolen over the years, but it's not the point. That's money that the store could've gotten through sales, items that people want to buy, more hours to people who actually need them, and three hours of time [hour and a half for me, hour and a half for Monday's MOD] to do something else other then clean up some idiot's mess.

There are other delvopments that I've found out tonight that aren't even related to this, all I can say right now is that my ears will be open come my next shift.

[Mytical]

Not only is it such a waste of paint, but everything the paint was smeared on. Ask management for surveillance equipment asap.

I would have used that paint. I can't paint, but some of the 'art' I see isn't exactly painting either lol (I am not 'sophisticated' enough to understand the brilliance of 'splatter art').

[simplyanother]

Ugh. I fully admit that sometimes...I don't...uh, see... messes that appear in random places in the store. We had incidents with the spray paint (which we have in a couple of different places). The solution? Tape all the cans shut. Other stores have spray paint in cages. We have...tape.

Our artist paints, the really expensive ones, or the really small tubes are under lock and key now, but they didn't used to be. The cheaper paints are runnier and ...create bigger messes...

Oh, the tape defense is also used for things like...the india inks. Cause no one will ever steal something that is ...TAPED!

(apologies for the ellipses abuse)