United Morphs - Nick Runde

Originally Posted by smigon

Well that sucks! Since the manager admitted that Dakota worked there, I would take it up a notch and contact the district manager. Places like Jimmy John's usually do have a younger manager, he is probably friends with Dakota which is why the indifference to your call. Second floor, please!

Contacting a place of retail to harass an employee (because that is what it will be seen as) is not something you should do. Can cops do it? Yes. Can you do it? Sure. Will you get anywhere with it? No.

I have been in management in retail for years. It would be a violation of that employee's rights with the company for the management to do ANYTHING about this situation. They are not obligated to do it nor should they.

You have no legal grounds by which to demand anything from them.

Okay, so take this tidbit with several grains of salt, maybe a little lime too. I'm not sure if it's entirely above the law or even advisable to do this, and I wouldn't even recommend this if you had more options. But here's something that's worked for me. Especially in my case, where the scammer still lived at home. I was pretty desperate, but this worked for me. I have no idea the value of your snakes, as I don't do BPs, but I was nearly scammed out of $5,000.

Get a bunch of post cards. Also, get a couple oversized manilla envelopes, like the 11x14 or whatever. The big ones.

Now write on the postcards in a thick sharpie things like "HOW DARE YOU STEAL FROM ME?" and "I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU COMMITED MAIL FRAUD!" things like that. Also, write it on the outside of the big envelope, in thick dark print so that everybody--the mailman, his parents, everybody! can read it when (and even before) it reaches it's intended destination. Whoever picks up the mail, will see that's there's something going on. Huge shame factor. I mean, the writing on the outside of the envelope clearly needs explaining somewhere!! In the bigger envelopes, print off your proof and perhaps this thread and include it in the envelopes that get mailed to the parents or the other parties.

Make sure you mail it to the address you shipped to. Also, it never hurts to "accidentally" mail a couple of those bad boys to his family members, girlfriend, church, etc. In my case, one of those post cards getting mailed to Grandma and the church pastor got me my end of a swap. The kid cannot delete it, or hide it from his parents, and it forces him to face the issue. Especially since Grandma read that my scammer was actively committing mail fraud, and could be fined/jailed/etc.

I wish you luck. And once more, I have no idea if this constitutes harassment, or what, but I was out of options and this got me my end of a swap. Use your judgement.

Oops! Forgot to add--

Use Facebook as your address book. So if he lists his church, then grab that address and send there. Lists an Uncle Bob as a friend? Google Uncle Bob's address! Even if Uncle Bob lives in a different state, send mail there explaining you're trying to get ahold of the kid and why. Uncle Bob just might call his sister, the kid's mom, and get things rolling.

I left no address unsent in my quest. Once more, use your judgement. Good luck.

Originally Posted by ShadowAceD

Contacting a place of retail to harass an employee (because that is what it will be seen as) is not something you should do. Can cops do it? Yes. Can you do it? Sure. Will you get anywhere with it? No.

I have been in management in retail for years. It would be a violation of that employee's rights with the company for the management to do ANYTHING about this situation. They are not obligated to do it nor should they.

You have no legal grounds by which to demand anything from them.

What state are you in? It must not be an "at-will" employment state if you have to have a really good reason to fire someone.

It is not a violation of the employee's rights if Clark were to tell his boss that his employee stole from you. That is the truth, you aren't slandering his name since it is the truth.

Since Iowa is an "at-will" employment state, he can be fired for no reason at all. If I, as his boss, was told he had stolen from someone, I would certainly look into it and have a talk with him about why the complaint was made. If he couldn't prove to me that the other party was lying, I would know I had an untrustworthy employee on my hands, basically a thief. I would fire him and he would have no recourse.

The manager has no obligation to look into this, of course, but if he was a decent manager he would and this might light a fire under this kid's ass to pay up, hinting that his job could be on the line.

Originally Posted by ShadowAceD

Contacting a place of retail to harass an employee (because that is what it will be seen as) is not something you should do.

I agree.

People are throwing around the word 'theft'. As of now, there has been no conviction, despite all that has been said here.
Be careful of the words you use, they can come back on you if you characterize someone as a thief to someone such as an employer, it affects the person's job, and let's say later he beats the rap and is found innocent.
There are many, many officials that can be contacted- school administrators, multiple agencies because of the allegation children were filmed beating snakes, and all manner of law enforcement about the allegation of theft/fraud.


Clark, I've asked several times for you to post the emails showing exactly what you two agreed to do in this transaction. It is starting to become a red flag to me that you are not doing so.

Originally Posted by Lucille

Clark, I've asked several times for you to post the emails showing exactly what you two agreed to do in this transaction. It is starting to become a red flag to me that you are not doing so.

I agree.

Clark, posting the emails will help.

You need to contact federal authorities. Basically, he committed fraud via the internet and interstate transport. That isn't a local crime, that is a federal crime. The local law enforcement isn't going to give a crap, because it isn't their jurisdiction. The appropriate agency is the FBI and the IC3 (sub-unit dedicated to internet crime which this apparently is):

http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx

People have a sense of invulnerability due to the anonymity of the internet. But when you start committing crimes using the internet, it is an entirely different story. Local police agencies may not give a hoot but this becomes a federal crime and internet fraud, combined with mail fraud, is a pretty big deal. The IC3 is an entire federal agency dedicated to pursuing internet white collar crime. That's their only purpose.

If I was Dakota, I'd be worried.

Kate

You also need to include references to the other scams Dakota has tried to run via the internet, like posting for sale pictures of snakes which he doesn't even own (using publicly available photos on the internet). The kid has no clue what he's gotten himself into.

Kate

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...9182489&type=1

Originally Posted by smigon

What state are you in? It must not be an "at-will" employment state if you have to have a really good reason to fire someone.

It is not a violation of the employee's rights if Clark were to tell his boss that his employee stole from you. That is the truth, you aren't slandering his name since it is the truth.

Since Iowa is an "at-will" employment state, he can be fired for no reason at all. If I, as his boss, was told he had stolen from someone, I would certainly look into it and have a talk with him about why the complaint was made. If he couldn't prove to me that the other party was lying, I would know I had an untrustworthy employee on my hands, basically a thief. I would fire him and he would have no recourse.

The manager has no obligation to look into this, of course, but if he was a decent manager he would and this might light a fire under this kid's ass to pay up, hinting that his job could be on the line.

I was an Assistant General Manager for Papa John's and for GameStop for years. I would NEVER fire someone based on hearsay and I would NEVER get myself involved in a personal dispute that has nothing to do with the work place unless I was asked for cooperation by a police force. My job, as a manager, is to protect my employees unless there is definitive and legal reason not to. THAT is what a decent manager does.

As crappy as this situation is, his workplace has no obligation or even proof that they need to get involved in this matter.

You cannot fire someone based on hearsay. Sorry, it does not work that way, no matter what kind of employment state it is. "Right to Work" or "At Will" states have limitations on the whole "firing without reason" thing (not to mention many corporations and franchises have their own requirements with HR for firing people). If you fire someone because someone told you they are a thief and you have no proof of the claims, which the manager would not unless they are willing to take what is said on a forum about an industry they probably do not understand to heart, then that person could go to HR to file a grievance and your butt is on the line for it. Firing someone based on such hearsay could be viewed and argued as a form of discrimination. It could be viewed as a personal and retaliatory grievance wholly irrelevant to the work place which the Iowa Supreme Court is not fond of as a reason to terminate someone.

For all the manager knows, this is an ex-friend/girlfriend that has a grudge against one of their employees and is just trying to stir up crap.

It is a violation of an employee's rights and incredibly unprofessional for a manager to get involved with a PERSONAL matter which they have NO WAY of verifying unless the employee willingly divulges information on their own. The employer has no business in this personal matter and would seriously need to have their professionalism brought into question if they did get involved.

Without police asking for such cooperation, the manager, the general manager, the regional manager, the owner ... none of these people should be involved. He works for a fast food restaurant, not some local or federal government entity that has the power and ability via contracts to infiltrate their employees' personal lives.

As I said before, trying to harass him at the work place without law enforcement to back it up and ask for cooperation from the company is just not a good idea and no self-respecting manager would let it go anywhere.