About Ganesh Prasad
Ganesh Prasad is from Mangaluru (at Katipalla near Surathkal) and came to us through another employee Yashawanth. He has been dating Yashawanth’s Cousin. He had all-around restaurant experience but at small restaurants. He worked with us as captain for 1 year. Used to coordinate well with another captain Ranjith for the evening session. While everyone was using smartphones, he used to have a basic feature phone. He earned well through tips and used to give it to his girlfriend every day. Once in July, Yashawanth behaved irresponsibly, and Ganesh mediated and saved his job.
Ganesh recently
Since October his behaviour changed dramatically. He bought a smartphone. We thought he had changed because of the emotional ecstasy of getting married in 2 months. His attendance was erratic. His focus on work deteriorated. He started asking for an advance salary. He could hardly work for minimum hours, let alone work overtime when required. We thought he would get back to his original form once he got married. Now he is in so much financial trouble that he got advance (hand loan) from the restaurant, other restaurant employees, family, and relatives.
Incident
He got so desperate for money that his eyes caught the money on the cash counter. He pestered the cashier at night to go for dinner while he took care of the counter. The cashier on duty refused and didn’t succeed in his endeavour to steal at night. The next morning (Sunday, 11th February), he went to relieve the cashier on duty for breakfast at 8:45. She felt hungry and immediately agreed. She was given a list of people who could relieve her from the counter. But she missed the instruction. Barely did she go out of the counter. Ganesh took all the 500s and 100s notes (Total value 62,500) from the counter along with the restaurant smartphone, put them in his pocket, and immediately fled the restaurant by bus to Mangaluru. Other employees immediately got to know about the incident and informed the management about it.
Action
Keshava Ram immediately called the Police helpline (112) and registered the complaint. He also went to the Puttur town Police Station and informed the constables about the same. They asked for the facts and proof of the theft. CC TV Footage clearly shows the incident from multiple angles. Police tried to catch the thief by informing Parangipete Police Station by searching inside the bus. But that didn’t work out. Then owner Suprabha registered an FIR and went for the search operation. 2 Police Constables, Suprabha and Keshava Ram went to Mangaluru in the afternoon. First, we searched for his house at Kaatipalla, met his mother and niece, and informed them about the incident. Then we traced his phone to find that he was near the State Bank Bus Stand. Then searched for him there and found him at a lodge at night 9:00 pm. When enquired, he said, he used all the money for betting on online Rummy Game. Then we brought him to Puttur police station at 12:00 am midnight. He is now at Jail in Mangaluru.
Learnings
- Procedures or SOPs are required and to be followed. This is the case of the cashier on duty not following the procedure of keeping bulk cash in the locker and letting any random employee instead of an approved person to substitute for her at the cash counter. The responsibility is also on her supervisor and management for not adhering to the SOPs.
- Take warning signals seriously and take immediate action. We had recently fired people who got into drinking habit and attending work irregularly. His game addition is equally bad and should have been identified and acted upon.
- A police department job is not easy. The constable worked continuously for 18 hours to help nab the thief and get the work done. We generally think government servants are incapable. This act by the police has shown how they get the work done silently. While we had gone to register the complaint, there were 4 other similar complaints.
- Take strict action against the culprit, lest he not repeat the crime in the future. Also let others not dare to perform similar crimes.