Begrudgingly, I agree the SAR is necessary; the law is not "finders keepers." It is this quote that chafes:
Management is asking us to file a SAR on this person.
There have been very few SAR related threads where management is the proponent for filing a SAR. If they believe the customer stole from them they should be more worried about filing a police report or a civil suit than a SAR.
"Oh yeah, there might be a newspaper article that makes us look sloppy and guilty of carrying out a vendetta against a retiree with limited means, right? Okay, then let's just accuse him of stealing in such a way that no one will never know about it."
Phhttt!