I stole hundreds of dollars of change from Starbucks.

One day, when I was in high school, I got a gift card for Starbucks. I gave them my card and they gave me my drink. I didn't know how much the drink was until I got it, and it was less than the amount on my card. <br><br>The barista told me that my card had about 10 bucks on it, but that she had charged me for 8. I corrected her and worked that the drink was 7 dollars. She gave me back my card, and worked the register for the next person in line.<br><br>One of the employees walked out of the back to throw something away, and she told him that I had earned 3 bucks, and that I was smart to have noticed that she had given me an extra dollar. We both laughed about it, and I got ready to leave. The employee took the trash out, and when he got back, I told him to give me the three bucks.<br><br>The employees had a brief staredown, and I could tell that they were both wondering which one of them was going to give me the three bucks. Finally, the male employee gave me three dollars out of the tip jar, and told the barista to keep her money where she could see it.<br><br>Fast forward to the next day. I knew I didn't have enough money on my card to get a coffee, so when I went to Starbucks, I waited for the barista to charge me for my drink, then I told her that I wanted a gift receipt. She printed me out a receipt, and I walked over to her coworker and gave it to them. I told them that my coworker wanted a gift receipt, but that I was going to pay for their drink.<br><br>Then I gave them the gift card. She swiped it, and walked away to throw something away. I took the money, grabbed my drink, and walked out. I did this for a few days. I did it with my own card, gift cards friends had given me, and cards I found in the garbage. I never got caught, and I don't know how they balanced their registers, but it was easy.<br><br>Then I got a job at Starbucks. I saw that my coworkers balanced their registers by the amount they were off placing it in the tip jar. Managers didn't care if you balanced, as long as you didn't steal from the tip jar. I started stealing from the tip jar on my first day, but it wasn't until the end of my first week that I realized I could use the gift receipt method to steal from the till.<br><br>I started doing this on my next shift, and it worked perfectly. The employees never got in trouble for being off, the managers didn't care, and the other employees never noticed. It was more dangerous than stealing from the tip jar, so I did it less often. I never got caught doing this, but I did get fired from Starbucks for dishonesty. I had just gotten promoted to shift manager, so I was in charge for the first time.<br><br>I wanted to go outside and smoke a cigarette. I was about 30 minutes from my lunch, so I grabbed a pack of gum and took it outside, intending to pay for it when I got back inside. I had been smoking for about 5 minutes when one of the employees came out to tell me that there was a problem inside. <br><br>When I walked in, my manager was standing there with the district manager, the employees, and the camera remote control. There was a video paused on one of the monitors behind them, and one of the employees was crying. The district manager told me that they had reviewed the camera footage, and that they knew I was taking the gum.<br><br>I was shocked that this was the reason they were firing me. I had to fight the urge to laugh when they told me the reason. The employees started to cry more, and they told my former manager that he had been encouraging me to steal, and that he had let me smoke in the back room.<br><br>The district manager believed them, and he got fired too. They also started a district wide initiative to review camera footage more often, and they made sure all employees knew that the district manager was watching them.<br><br>Edit: I think people are misunderstanding how Starbucks gift cards work.<br><br>When a customer gives you a gift card, you swipe it, and the register lets you know how much money is on the card. Then you ask the customer for another form of payment for the amount that is over the balance on the card. If you had a 10 dollar card, and bought an 8 dollar drink, the register would ask you how you are going to collect the 2 dollar difference. <br> <br>So the 3 dollar thing wasn't about charging people more, it was about the change.<br><br>One more thing- The first barista didn't know that I was going to get 3 bucks. <br>She had made a mistake by telling me that the card had 10 on it, when it had 8. It isn't important to tell customers how much money they have on their cards, so when I told her she made a mistake, her face lit up, and she knew that I had tricked her into telling me my balance. <br>Her mistake was that she had told me my balance, not that she charged me too much.