Welcome to the Gilt Trips podcast. I'm your host, Kendra Lockhart. As a goldsmith and
gemologist, I'll be speaking 24 carat on all things jewelry, metals, and gems. Join
me plus a few friends to demystify both materials and designs as your private jeweler. Let's
tune in on these topics and get golden. Welcome to this episode on theft. I'm still recording
in New York City, so don't be surprised to hear some of the sounds of Manhattan. There's
no perfect time to record. I've stayed up until 2am, wishing and hoping that was so.
It is magical thinking, although noble, as a declaration to say, I'm not going to get
robbed. Nobody's going to take from me. It's kind of similar to when I said, I'll never
get in a car accident, I'm going to be the best driver ever. It's a great game to play,
but I guarantee you won't bet a thousand. And here's the good news. You'll learn more
from when it happens than all the time you've spent rehearsing and being vigilant and imagining
how it won't. I'm going to divide today's episode into three situations. But the first
one I want to start off with before we even get to when things go wrong is the charades
we go through in order to prevent that and attempt to generate when things can only
go right. What I mean by this is when you go through the training, the simulation, the
role plays, the mock interactions with your coworkers or your staff on loss prevention.
You know, the scenario where a gentleman comes in with a large coat over his shoulder or
his arm and lays it down on the countertop while looking at very expensive pieces. It
may be common sense for some. It certainly is trainable in people who are not as familiar
with that situation. You don't place big bulky items where there's an opportunity to
take tiny little precious treasures. The other rule is having too many items out at one time.
You simply don't do that as enthusiastic as new salespeople or even an owner of a business
can get when somebody comes in flashing the cash and wants to see all the best of the
best at the same time. While the usual go to is I'm sorry, our insurance policy says
we can only show one or two items at a time that really takes the power out of the conversation
and places it into this invisible third party. And yet it's still part of today's trainings.
And of course, the last is when somebody comes in looking at an item that matches the one
that they're wearing. Most people don't see this as a red flag, but if you're already
wearing that Rolex, why are you looking at that Rolex? So it takes a blend of exposure,
conversation, training and experience to start recognizing the obvious and the nuanced opportunities
where someone can take what you've got. The first time that I was quote unquote robbed,
it was extremely subtle. I'll get into it more in later episodes that with my first
job as the jewelry designer, I was young. I was in great shape. I was no strings detached.
So I was asked to be a courier or a runner of items from the shop to our vendors or contractors.
Here I am up in a nice neighborhood in Chicago. And here I go on a bus or possibly on foot,
maybe in a cab if time is of the essence, even on the train to get down to the business
district and do all of the errands that are required, pick up these diamonds, drop off
this ring for engraving, make sure that you receive the pearls that we just had restrung,
and don't forget the castings for that custom order. Things of this nature. You do your
best to be as discreet as possible. The error that I made, and fortunately it wasn't on
company time. I was running errands for side projects that I was doing on my own time,
which eventually would become my company. Of course I dressed very nonchalantly, but
my error was I had an enormous over the shoulder bag that kind of looked like a beach tote.
And while everything was in the bottom of it, when I got onto that elevator to go up
the 10 floors to the majority of the people I needed to do the project with, somebody
had reached into the bag, snatched the tiny coin envelopes that contained my work, and
I couldn't feel a thing. And because the elevator was semi-crowded, if somebody were
to accidentally bump me, it was understandable. So it's things like this to take into consideration
that are an opportunity for somebody looking to gain at your loss. What did I learn from
that? Obviously get a smaller bag that has full closure over it. Secondly, manage the
value of what you're carrying. Only have jobs with you that are critical to that trip. And
last, assume somebody is always watching you, and if you are situationally aware, paying
attention and ready to respond.
The next circumstance that I was in, where I was stolen from, was with private clients.
They were definitely biting off more than they could chew for their upcoming wedding.
And she wanted the sun, moon, and stars. And he couldn't possibly work any more jobs to
attempt to make that happen. Whether it was put it on the credit card, borrow from the
family, we'll make money at the wedding, let's ask for all of our gifts in the form of cash.
It was quite a conversation to witness. So when it came time for them to design their
ring with me, I wasn't surprised that it was going to be a simple solitaire with all of
the money going into the center stone. We looked at several diamonds, settled on a 2.5
carat oval. She cried because it wasn't a 3. Granted, this was her second marriage,
and she was 10 years older than he was. So of course she wanted this one to be the right
one, the bigger one, the better one, as far as trips down the aisle. However, the materialism
was starting to get a little uncomfortable even for a private jeweler like me. When they
couldn't come up with the money to secure the diamond, I created an arrangement with
the diamond house that we would pay it off in 90 days, a third of the total every month.
As we neared the wedding, I was ready to deliver what I call a dummy ring, which was the exact
same solitaire with a cubic zirconia in the center. This wouldn't do for her, and she
hadn't become quite the bridezilla by this point. They asked to see the final ring and
just try it on so that she could walk down the aisle with at least the experience of
wearing her real diamond even if it wasn't paid off. I agreed.
A week later, I get a call from the future husband who says she has to wear this down
the aisle. Is there any way that we can borrow it just for the night? And I said not when
it's unpaid. It's too much of a liability for both of us. Okay, well, I'll put the balance
on the company card. And then the next day, we'll return the diamond ring to you. And
then reverse the charge on the company card. The total will just go on the business charge
for 24 hours. I said, All right, I can work with that. And so that happened. It was paid
in full. The card did go through. I did deliver the ring. I even attended the wedding. The
next day I called and said, Let's make arrangements so that you can have the dummy ring back.
And I can put the diamond in the safe again. No response. Called again later that day.
Nothing. Let it roll over to the next day. The wedding was Friday night. Now it's Sunday.
Third attempt. I checked my bank account. This was before you got notifications on every
single transaction. The charge had been canceled for about $6,000. That's money that I owe
the diamond house that wasn't profit to me. I worked very tight on this project so that
we could make it happen. And hopefully it would lead to future referrals or repeat business.
Not everyone is in hard times forever. Through the grapevine, I found out they had left for
their honeymoon. In a state of panic, I contacted Ivy at ancient echoes, the woman who was carrying
my work and where I was a house designer. No, I had not met these clients through that
business. So she had no skin in my game. Fortunately, she said that's just over the amount where
this is a felony and you should report it to the police. I did just so. A warrant was
created. And by the time they came back from their glorious trip to Barbados, they were
served and a court date was set. They did have to pony up for a lawyer. I decided to go
pro se because as fate would have it, I had worked for an attorney while I was an undergrad.
Their lawyer wanted to negotiate with me when I told him exactly what went down and that
I had witnesses to this fake transaction. He met with his clients for 15 minutes. They
agreed to return the ring with full payment and the attorney ended up becoming my lawyer.
I'm very fortunate that integrity did the talking for me. And while he had the money
from the people he was representing, he knew it was a bad deal and that perhaps I'm his
perfect client and that is exactly what happened down the road. Of all the years that I've
been working in showrooms for jewelry, I've usually seen something happen near me or to
a colleague or to a coworker, even my boss at the time. For example, there was a diamond
that I was showing in a private viewing room to a gentleman who seemed very anxious, restless,
nervous and unable to focus. He even kept peacocking. He would open up his checkbook
and say, if I like it and you make it the right price, I'll write you some money today.
And he'd flip his checkbook open and closed and open and closed. All of these behaviors
added up to, I should pay attention not to what he's doing, but what this is about. At
one point he said, yeah, I don't want to do this today. I'll be back on the weekend. I
wasn't working that weekend and this client showed up, talked to the owner, asked to see
the same stone, said, can you put it in the grips so I can see it in the light like that
girl did. He had a CZ in identical grips. And when the phone rang and the boss turned
his head ever so slightly to see if somebody was going to pick that up, the grips were
switched. By the time I come back after the weekend, I'm notified that the diamond was
stolen and they've narrowed it down to this one client. What the owner was not expecting
is for me to say, Oh, you mean, and I said first and last name and his address. In a
state of shock, I was asked, how do you know all of that? And I said, because he kept flipping
his checkbook open again and again and again. And at some point I saw it enough times, I
just decided to learn it. We went to court and I testified against him with my employer
and we won. So at the same location, the same job with the same boss, it was the day that
OJ Simpson was declared not guilty. There was a lot of activity on the street, not too
long after that. There were a lot of cars revving up and down. There were a lot of horns.
There was a lot of commotion yelling. It got busy. We didn't have a strong phone tree back
in the late 90s. And so we hadn't heard that the bank up the block had gotten hit. It was
330 in the afternoon because we had had significant business that day. And I remember thinking,
Oh, I've worked through my lunch. Oh, we're so close to closing. Why don't I just skip
it? An inner voice or intuition or for all I know, my guardian angel said, go outside,
take your 30 minute break, grab a bite. So I did. And it was hard to get up the street.
The sidewalks were pretty crowded. And by the time I came back in 20 minutes, the showroom
had been hit for a third of a million dollars. What happened? Four gentlemen came to the
door and asked to be buzzed in. We were a staff of three minus one because I was on
lunch. They came in, held the place up, scared the bookkeeper in the back to the point where
she forgot the drill of if anybody comes in to steal the diamonds, you give them the fake
box out of the safe, not the real box that is stashed overhead and out of sight. And
this is why all those laws prevention pretend interactions with your coworkers don't really
cut it when it's real. So I walk back in, I immediately get frisked and fingerprinted.
The cases are smashed. Jewelry is gone. And the diamond box has been taken. What could
have been done differently? First of all, it's four very well dressed men in broad daylight.
When these people be at work, and when is the last time you saw a pack of bros in suits
all decide to come to a jewelry store together? That's not exactly a group guy activity.
So while these experiences were less than desirable and unsavory to say the least, the instant
training and wisdom you get from being on the losing end of these situations sets you
up for the next decade of your career, regardless of the role you're in, whether you're a courier
or a designer or a salesperson or the president of your own business. While I hope this doesn't
happen to you, if it does, may the loss be minimal and may the gain serve you, your staff,
your protege and your colleagues when it's time to tell a story.
Thank you for listening and learning with me. I would love you to share this project
with people finding rare beauty in today's world and throughout our times. Until the
next episode, keep your own stories sparkling.