Firstly, take your left hand and pat your right shoulder heartily, for if you had a Unionized workforce and you caught a theif, your life, (and most everyone eles's) would be misery.
In many cases with "caught in the act" thefts here in Vancouver the crime goes un-punished and the employee still continues to work his/her job, albeit with greater animosity. And of course, a lawsuit or investigation by the Labour board in which the employer is always assumed guilty when any allegation is made on the employer, which translates into either illegal use of cameras, some form of human rights mis-doing, or something that the employer did wrongfully.
Why do people steal?
Opportunity firstly
"They owe it to me" secondly. Percieved owed overtime, percieved favours gone un-rewarded.
Drugs thirdly. No one can support a habit for years and years just by working, stealing and drug dealing usually are in the mix.
And then you just have the hard-core thiefs who steal out of habit
I never had to worry much about actual material theft, I run a fairly tight ship, but there's always theft in the form of showing up late, slacking off, and fraud--particularily with the various Gov't agencies--Labour baord, Worker's comp. and the the fraudulent claims.
Still can't get over the use of "Chef". A cook's a cook, and when I hear that a "chef" stole I still think it's the head of the kitchen. Here in N.America everyone and his dog is a "chef" and I always ask the self-crowned "chef's":
"What's the difference between a team captain, a player, and the head coach? They're all part of the same team, right?
A chef is the head of the kitchen, or , if you like, the head coach. A Chef garde-manger is head of the garde-manger, not head of the kitchen. An "apprentice Chef" is an oxymoron, same as a salad chef, prep chef or "drop chef" (bloke who drops stuff down the deep fryer).