Milwaukee Tool Employee Allegedly Shipped More Than $1 Million in Tools to Himself

Brazen theft scheme allegedly diverted tons of tools.

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Milwaukee Tool Employee Allegedly Shipped More Than $1 Million in Tools to His Home

An employee at Milwaukee Tool in Wisconsin is accused of stealing more than $1 million in tools from his employer. 

According to local reports, investigators say the staffer had the tools shipped directly to his home, but never paid for them.

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Milwaukee Tool, a Brookfield-based company known for its generous program that allows employees to buy deeply discounted tools, uncovered the plot earlier this year.

According to a search warrant, the employee works at the company's new $30 million corporate office it announced in May 2021. The worker allegedly created and deleted some 115 orders from March 2024 to March 2025. Of those orders, 109 shipments, valued at $1,086,263.85, were delivered.

The employee may have flown under the radar for a year, but then he got greedy and sent about 9,000 pounds of tools to his nearby apartment. 

Milwaukee Tool wasn't even the one to raise the red flag; it was the shipping company that found the sizeable shipment peculiar and notified the company. 

The alert triggered an investigation that remains ongoing. While the worker hasn't been charged yet, some speculate that the scheme could involve area businesses that helped the employee move the tools. 

Milwaukee Tool fired the worker for "abuse of our employee purchase program," which reportedly offers employees discounted tools at prices ranging from 30% to 50% off retail prices. The company stated that it has "zero tolerance" for any form of theft. 

The plot is a dark spot for a toolmaker that celebrated its 100th anniversary last year and opened its largest manufacturing facility in the U.S. last October. The $60 million, 500,000-square-foot plant will employ more than 800 people in Mississippi; let's hope none of them are shipping 4.5 tons of tools to their homes. 

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