SaskTel incurred a hefty $184,000 CAD loss in Canada after an employee pocketed hundreds of cell phones of different values. According to recent reports, a SaskTel employee at the Crown’s Regina store stole 22 cell phones in June, prompting the carrier to take a closer look at what was going on at the retail location. Upon further inspection, SaskTel discovered that the worker had in fact stolen a lot more – 235 phones in total – and she sold the devices to third parties. After being suspended without pay in light of those discoveries, the employee resigned and it’s now up to the police to handle the matter. Since the thief sold the merchandise to third parties, SaskTel may never recover the stolen devices, the company said.
Darcee MacFarlane, a spokeswoman for the Canadian carrier, revealed that the worker was a customer service representative. Before being caught, the former employee managed to steal various phones of different values, amounting to $184,000 CAD ($144,400) in total, which SaskTel has yet to recover. Although SaskTel doubts it will ever get the devices back, it plans to get restitution through legal means. The carrier aims to recover its losses either by filing a civil lawsuit against the former worker or by asking authorities to take restitution into account if they decide to pursue criminal action against the culprit. Otherwise, it would be highly challenging to recover 235 devices that have been re-sold to third parties, the firm admitted, and it remains to be seen when and how SaskTel will be able to receive restitution for its losses.
The regional carrier offered no further details as to what specific devices were stolen, or which ones were the most expensive. At the same time, it remains unclear for how long the former employee had been pocketing devices and re-selling them for her own profit. Police are currently investigating the matter and will decide what course of action to pursue in due time. Considering the ratio of stolen devices and total losses cited by SaskTel, it’s likely that at least some of them were flagships, and more details on the case may be revealed later this year.