Many otherwise honest people turn into kleptos once they get to work.

In a survey titled "Office Kleptomania," 10 percent of workers admitted to stealing from their employers and 38 percent of hiring managers reported firing people fortheft . This survey of more than 2,200 workers - conducted in June by online job website CareerBuilders.com - has a low count compared to others.

A poll last year by a legal resources company called Lawyers.com found that 18 percent of 2,350 surveyed admitted taking office supplies from work. And in 2005, a career information company called Vault.com, said 67 percent of 1,150 people it queried admitted the same.

"It's usually about half or more," said Jeffrey Alstete, a professor at the Hagan School of Business at Iona College in New York, who has seen many surveys.

Alstete studies employee theft. He says workers will take anything that's not bolted down, for all kinds of reasons.

"A lot of times, employees feel they are underpaid, so they have a right to take what's owed to them," Alstete said.

Other times, stealing makes employees feel as if they are exerting control over their bosses. For bosses who steal, it may be to feed an ego - or it may be a subconscious act of self-destruction.

Last year, Thomas Coughlin, former vice chairman of Wal-Mart, pleaded guilty to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. He'd joined Wal-Mart as a loss-prevention director. He was a personal friend of founder Sam Walton. He made more than $6 million a year and had amassed stock worth more than $50 million over a 27-year career. Yet he stole things like dog food and Celine Dion CDs.

"Some people feel they don't deserve the position and the status they have, so they do this kind of behavior to be brought down a notch," Alstete said.

Last week, Larry Manzanares came down several notches after being found in the possession of a stolen laptop computer. Manzanares, 50, resigned as Denver City Attorney, a $125,473-a-year job that he'd held for two months.

Before becoming one of the most powerful members of Mayor John Hickenlooper's administration, the Harvard Law School graduate had been a Denver county and Denver district court judge. When Manzanares was named to the county post in 1992, he was the third member of his family to preside over a court.

The laptop that police found at Manzanares' home had been reported stolen from the locked storage room of a state court administrator. It was the same court where Manzanares worked.

Manzanares, however, has said he purchased the computer from a guy in a parking lot. This is a disturbing story from a man who once lectured on legal ethics.

Of course, employers can't rely on ethics when anyone from the chairman on down might be stealing.

What they really need is LoJack.

The computer that got Manzanares in trouble was loaded with a product by Absolute Software Corp. of Vancouver, B.C. The business version of this software is called CompuTrace and the consumer version is called LoJack for Laptops.

When a stolen computer logs onto the Internet, this software alerts authorities to the phone number or Internet protocol address it is using. The service, which costs $50 a year, is so much like the one used to trackstolen cars that Absolute licensed the LoJack name.

The software can't be detected. It will recreate itself when a thief replaces a stolen laptop's hard drive. It has only been loaded in about 1 million computers. But Absolute now has deals with several manufacturers, so this product may soon be as standard as anti-virus software.

Absolute spokesman Matt Fisher said the software now recovers 25 to 50 stolen laptops a week. It works everywhere.

"We once saw a laptop go from Boston to London, then Dubai, then back to London, down to Miami and back up to Boston," Fisher said. "Somebody stole it, sold it on eBay, and a Hong Hong businessman was using it as he traveled."

This is the beginning of a bad trend for all of you thieves in the workplace.

"When the detectives knock on the door, so often the criminals say, 'How one earth did you find me? How could you possibly know?"' Fisher said. "They have no idea how they got caught."

Al Lewis' column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Respond to Lewis at 303-954-1967, denverpostbloghouse.com/lewis, or alewis@denverpost.com.