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NARRATOR: Tonight on "Mystery Diners,"
Luis Garcia, owner of Garcia's in Miami, Florida,
is getting crabby about a recent decline in seafood inventory.
I used to receive about 700 to 800 pounds of stone crabs a week.
Now it's to the point where I'm getting 300, 350 pounds.
Are his employees wasting product or stealing from him?
He just drove off with your crab legs.
The Mystery Diners are going fishing
in order to find out what's really going on.
How long have you been stealing form me?!
Owning a restaurant isn't easy.
You can have great food, atmosphere, and customers,
but reckless employees...
You're being a jerk, man.
...can ruin everything.
That's where the Mystery Diners come in.
Charles Stiles has helped thousands of restaurants
find their problems and remove them.
He sends in his team of undercover operatives...
I'm Chris. I'm the new supply guy.
...to show restaurant owners
what really happens when they're not around.
MAN: You were stealing from me.
I want to go over there right now! I want to go over there right now!
This is my business!
That food is my life!
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
LUIS: My name is Luis Garcia.
I own Garcia's Seafood Grille & Fish Market
in Miami, Florida.
The story behind our restaurant
goes back some 60-odd years.
My father had a fishing business in Cuba
right around the time that Fidel Castro took over,
and my father was exiled.
And he ended up in Miami,
where he started Garcia's Seafood.
About a year later, he went back to Cuba.
He got my mother and brought her to America.
Here at Garcia's Seafood Grille,
we have the freshest seafood in the business.
Our famous dishes are lobster --
which literally was in the water that morning.
We have lobster raviolis, mahi sandwiches,
and grouper sandwiches.
We have a stone-crab platter that's fantastic.
Our biggest asset here is we have a fleet of fishing boats,
and we catch our own fish.
I think it's unique
because you don't see that often at many restaurants,
where they actually catch their own product.
Unfortunately, it happens to be
one of my biggest problems, as well.
My biggest concern is the amount of stone crabs that we're receiving now.
Where I used to receive 700 pounds a week,
now I'm receiving 300 to 400 pounds.
I know that other fishermen that aren't fishing for me
are catching stone crabs,
so I know that the crabs are in the water.
I suspect my fishermen are stealing from me.
Hey, Charles. How are you?
My pleasure.
Thanks for coming out here. I appreciate it.
Things smell a little fishy out here.
That's the story of my life.
My car smells like fish. My house smells like fish.
You're in the fish business.
I'm the son of a fisherman, yeah.
So, Luis, what seems to be the problem?
Well, I'm having a problem with my inventory,
primarily with my stone-crab claws.
I used to receive about 700 to 800 pounds of stone crabs a week.
Now it's to the point where I'm getting maybe 300, 350 pounds.
What does that translate to in revenue for you?
Over the course of a month,
we're talking about several thousand dollars,
maybe more.
I think it's coming from the fishermen.
Do you have any specific fishermen
that you're concerned about?
There's this one guy, Alex.
His father used to work for my dad,
and so ever since my father passed away
about eight years ago,
I just don't see the actual loyalty
that his father had for mine.
So what does Alex say when you talk to him about this?
Well, he says that there's no crab in the ocean,
and I know it's a lie.
It's actually a protected species,
because you're allowed to take one claw,
and you're supposed to throw
the rest of the crab back in the water.
And these crabs -- they regenerate each claw.
And so I'm telling you,
it's happening here on the docks.
I'm assuming all the other fishermen
that are out here on the waters are probably still doing fine.
That's what I hear.
So, aside from the issues you're having down here at the docks,
do you have any other concerns at your restaurant?
Yes, I do -- The way we fillet our fish.
I suspect hundreds of dollars goes in the wastebasket.
To give you an idea, with one fillet,
if there's just an eighth of an inch of fish meat
left on the blood line,
potentially you'll be losing ounces and ounces of fish.
That magnifies to about 50 pounds of fish
over the course of a week.
That's $500 I'm throwing away in the trash.
Sure. So, you have any suspects?
His name is Cal. He fillets most of my mahis.
He does my shrimp.
I've told him over and over and over.
He's been trained. It's just his way about him.
NARRATOR: For this sting, "Mystery Diners"
will be focusing on fisherman Alex and prep cook Cal,
two employees who may be responsible
for a recent decline in inventory.
We come in and we hide hidden cameras
all over your restaurant.
We maybe put some cameras right into your warehouse,
'cause we want to find out where your losses are
from your dock all the way to the back of your restaurant.
We'll also send in some undercover Mystery Diners.
We'll set up a control room somewhere by your restaurant.
And that way, we can see what's going on.
You know, my father made me promise him
that I would keep all of these people employed.
But if this problem keeps up,
I won't be able to afford any of them.
To carry out the sting, cameras have been hidden
at key locations throughout Garcia's.
Cameras 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, and 6
have been set up inside the restaurant
to monitor the filleting of fish.
And Cameras 7, 8, 9,
10, 11, and 12
have been set up at the warehouse
to track the crab fishermen.
Mystery Diner Harry will go undercover as a dockhand.
Luis, come on in.
[ Chuckling ] Wow!
CHARLES: Welcome to your control room.
Let's grab a seat here, and we'll get started.
LUIS: This is incredible.
As you can see, we've got everything wired up.
We've got the front of your house, your server areas,
your prep areas out in your kitchen,
and I know you're also concerned about your fishermen,
so we've also hidden some cameras down at your dock
so we can watch all your fishermen coming in with your boats.
I'm actually excited to see that.
This guy here -- he's one of our Mystery Diners.
His name's Harry. He's been out here working on your docks.
I've been tracking all of Garcia's fishermen
for the last few days,
and so far, I haven't seen anything unusual.
They typically leave every morning around 4:00 a.m.
and are usually back around 2:30.
CHARLES: Since your fishermen left
before Harry got to the docks this morning,
Wow.
You and I are gonna watch it for the first time right now.
So you know what? Let's play it back.
Here we got your guys going to work here this morning.
How many guys are typically out on the boats together?
Typically, there's a captain,
and then there's the two guys --
one main fisherman and a mate.
Yeah.
That's Alex.
That's the one that you were concerned about. Who's the other guy?
They change mates occasionally, but I think that's Eric.
Now, what is that -- What is that they're drinking there?
Looks like a 12 pack?
Looks like they're drinking beer to me.
I mean, starting at 4:00 in the morning with a beer?
I mean, that's...
I mean, do you allow drinking on the clock?
Never.
Operating any vehicle while intoxicated
is not only against the law,
but it can cause accidents and can be deadly.
Look at this.
Single-handedly, Cal has [bleep] all over my business.
How long have you been stealing from me?!
NARRATOR: Luis Garcia, owner of Garcia's in Miami, Florida,
believes his fisherman Alex and prep cook Cal
are responsible for a decline in inventory.
I used to receive about 700 to 800 pounds of stone crabs a week.
Charles has set up a control room next to Garcia's,
where Luis can watch everything that happens in his restaurant
with our hidden cameras.
This is incredible.
Mystery Diner Harry has gone undercover as a dockhand.
And after starting the sting,
Luis watches how his fishermen start each day.
CHARLES: What is that they're drinking there?
Looks like a 12 pack?
I mean, that looks like a case of beer.
Do you allow drinking on the clock?
Never.
LUIS: Well, I was shocked to see that my lead stone-crab fisherman
was drinking on the job.
If you're a professional,
you handle yourself as a professional.
Okay, your fishermen will be back later this afternoon.
Until then, let's check in on your restaurant.
Okay, good.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
I know one of your concerns is the wastefulness of your fish
and how your prep cooks are preparing the fillets.
And so we're gonna watch Cal here.
Okay. Very interested in seeing how this unfolds.
[ Laughter ]
Cal -- Is that kind of a normal thing
for him to be dancing around the kitchen like that?
No. I mean, it's not.
LUIS: I don't have a problem with people having fun at work,
I just have a problem
when it starts to affect your performance.
And your performance at work is more important to me
than how much fun you're having.
That fish was not properly packed in ice.
And overnight, it'll just go bad.
Based on Cal's reaction,
I don't think that fish smells too fresh.
I'll be curious to see what he does with it.
Yeah. Yeah, of course.
Now he's throwing away five fish!
The thing about Cal is he knows exactly how to pack fish,
but he did it the night before and he didn't do it well.
And so what happens -- it spoils.
So there's Cal.
It looks like he's starting to cut some fish here.
What's he filleting?
He's filleting mahimahi.
See, there's a technique to it
so that we maximize on the actual meat.
They fillet down the middle of it, but you try to go
as close to the actual blood line as possible
Right.
Look at this.
Yeah, it looks like he's kind of butchering it.
I mean, I can't tell you how many times
he's been tutored in to how to fillet, and he laughs it off.
He's kind of goofy that way.
Goofy's okay if it's not costing you money.
This is upsetting me to the point
where I'm getting pissed off.
This is so offensive and so inappropriate.
First of all, that's not the blood line.
Yeah, he's totally missed that.
This is the opposite of the blood line.
That's the actual meat.
CHARLES: He's throwing the meat away.
I mean, you know, if that's 15%, 20% of that fillet,
that's a huge cost.
This is [bleep]
The piece of fish that he just threw out there --
How much money you think that's costing you right now?
He wasted about 7 portions, which is about $100.
How many fillets does he cut a day?
I don't want to think about that.
Watching Cal fillet my mahi
is upsetting and nauseating to me.
I teach these guys a certain technique.
He's been here long enough
that he has absorbed some of this,
but this isn't rocket science.
Clearly right now, he doesn't give a [bleep] about me
or my parents or my mom or my brother
or my sister or anybody.
Cal, by himself, is responsible
for at least $500 worth of product
that I've got to throw out.
Single-handedly, Cal has [bleep] all over my business.
Case of beer looks like it's a lot lighter
than it was this morning.
Where's he going with the basket? Harry, follow him.
NARRATOR: With the help of hidden cameras and undercover Mystery Diners,
Luis Garcia, owner of Garcia's,
has learned that fisherman Alex is drinking on the job...
Never.
...and prep cook Cal is wasting fish
by filleting them improperly
and throwing away hundreds of dollars worth of meat.
Clearly, right now he doesn't give a [bleep] about me
or my parents or my mom or my brother
or my sister or anybody.
Single-handedly, Cal has [bleep] all over my business.
I got to go see this guy
because he could throw away all my fish.
This is not the Cal that I hired.
This is not the guy that I trained.
CHARLES: That may be true about Cal,
but you seem to have a good staff.
I'm looking at a lot of these --
these employees you have running around here.
They're doing their job. They're on it.
I know, Charles. That's a good point.
You got a couple of people that you need to focus on.
Let's just let it play out a little bit longer
because there are some other concerns
that you had that we haven't addressed yet,
and I don't want to blow our cover.
Yep. You're right.
Midway through the sting,
fisherman Alex returns to the warehouse.
It looks like your fishermen are coming back here to the dock.
Okay, Harry, keep sweeping.
When Alex and the other fishermen returned,
they seemed a little tipsy.
Case of beer looks like it's a lot lighter
Yeah.
That's a good day -- just caught a couple hundred pounds.
How much are each one of those baskets worth?
700 bucks, 800 bucks.
Wow. That's a good catch for the day.
Who's that old gentleman over here by the scales?
That's Guida, one of my father's oldest friends.
The problem is, is that he's old,
and he can barely see and he can barely hear.
His job is to weigh the catch
and to hand the invoice to the fishermen.
So it sounds like once the fish are weighed,
they're given an invoice, they bring the invoice back here,
Exactly.
So how do the fishermen normally bring their catch to you?
A lot of times, I ask them
to just drop them off at the actual restaurant.
It's a three-minute boat ride.
Can literally just pull up into the back,
and they just unload it right there.
They're sorting these out into two different bins. That's pretty typical?
Yeah. Yeah.
Where's he going with the basket?
Harry, follow him.
So that black truck just pulled in.
Is that one of your employees?
No, I don't -- I don't recognize that truck at all.
Is that one of the deliverymen, or...
No, it's not.
HARRY: Hey, Charles, he just gave him a bunch of money.
By the way they were acting, it is not the first time
that Alex and this guy have had this arrangement.
I don't know who that guy is. I've never seen that truck.
He's robbing you. He's robbing your family.
LUIS: What really burns me
is that I had already paid for that product.
He just drove off with almost $700 of your crab legs.
The fact that Alex and Eric are taking advantage
of a 70-some-odd-year-old man is disgusting, deplorable.
And it just pisses me off that this is happening,
that it's been happening, and I just won't tolerate it.
HARRY: Hey, Charles, looks like they're going back to Garcia's.
Thanks, Harry. Good work.
I assume he's been stealing thousands of dollars from me.
He's been doing it not only to me, to my dad before me.
It's offensive to me. I've seen enough.
I don't need this [bleep] from these people
who I believed in for many years.
CHARLES: Alex is bringing your crabs in right now.
Why don't you get him?
But on your way in, grab Cal and bring him back here.
We're gonna deal with both of them at the same time.
Alex.
Calvin. Calvin. Follow me.
I just want to talk to you in the other room for one second.
Just come here. Follow me. Come here, Cal.
Not much. I just got to talk to you guys for a second.
Let's go. Come here, come here, come here, come here. Come here.
Hey, why don't you tell them what's up?
CHARLES: Guys, come on in. Come on in, guys.
What is all this?
But here's the problem --
I don't need you to apologize to me anymore.
[ Crying ] I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
You're stealing from my [bleep] family!
How long have you been stealing from me?!
No way!
Right now.
NARRATOR: After conducting an undercover sting operation
at Garcia's in Miami, Florida,
the Mystery Diners have revealed that prep cook Cal
is wasting hundreds of dollars worth of fish.
I don't want to think about that.
But even worse, fisherman Alex
is charging Garcia's for $700 worth of crab claws
and then selling off the catch to another buyer.
Let's go. Come here, come here, come here, come here. Come here.
Hey, why don't you tell them what's up?
CHARLES: Guys, come on in. Come on in, guys.
What is all this?
You know, guys, my name's Charles Stiles.
I'm with a company called Mystery Diners.
Your boss called my company
because he's been concerned about theft of product
and wastefulness taking place in the kitchen.
And we've been sitting here for hours
watching what's going on.
You know, and, Alex,
I've been doing this stuff for almost 20 years,
and I've seen a lot of people steal things.
And I got to tell you,
Luis' family has trusted you for years.
His father has trusted you for many, many, many years.
And you betrayed the trust and love they've given you
to support you and your family.
Did you carry out a basketful of crab
out to a black truck in the parking lot?
You're stealing from my [bleep] family?!
How long have you been stealing from me?!
How long?!
If you're gonna steal from me, look at me in my face.
Let me see how much money you got in your pocket.
I'm behind on my child support, man.
How much money?!
It was just 300 bucks. That's it.
It was $700 worth of crab.
No, that was only $300.
Let me have your hat.
No, no.
You're gonna give me your [bleep] shirt.
Get the [bleep] off!
No way!
Right now. Give me my money.
[Bleep] get off!
Go ahead! Hit me! I'll sue the [bleep] out of you!
Just get the [bleep] out of here.
Get out of here.
[ Shouts indistinctly ]
All fishermen do this.
I taxed him very little -- very little.
There's other guys -- They make off with a lot more.
Sit down for a second.
You were doing some stuff... I didn't like too much.
You ruined about $500 worth of product.
You threw away a bunch of mahi fillets.
It's affecting my bottom line.
I need to work. Like, I need the money.
Like, my rent is coming.
How come you didn't think about that before?
I didn't know all this was happening, bro.
CHARLES: It's his family. His name's on this restaurant.
And it's disrespect.
I don't know. I just -- I don't mean to be like that.
I'm sorry. I'm really trying.
I get it, but here's the problem --
I don't need you to apologize to me anymore.
Please, come on. I need this job.
Like, I really need this job.
I'm not gonna fire you.
Buddy, listen, listen.
You understand the severity
of some of the stuff you were doing?
[ Crying ] I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Thank you.
I don't need you to thank me or be apologetic.
I want you to get your job and do it right.
It's cool.
Essentially, I took the job for granted.
I messed up, but Luis gave me another chance --
one that I probably didn't deserve --
and I'm just thankful that I didn't get fired.
I'm concerned about the footage.
I know I was a little bit rough with the guy.
I hope that it doesn't come back to haunt me.
Appreciate it, man.
LUIS: I'm embarrassed that I behaved the way I did.
Certainly not something my father would have been proud of,
but I want to say thanks to Charles
and "Mystery Diners" for coming down here.
He showed me further evidence
of some of the things I suspected, and I appreciate it.
And I will address some of these issues
and make my restaurant more profitable
and certainly more efficient.
NARRATOR: Since being fired,
Alex has started fishing for another seafood company.
Cal has improved his filleting skills
and is no longer wasting product.
Luis installed an expensive surveillance system
to keep an eye on all his employees
and is no longer losing inventory at Garcia's.