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captainsblogSometimes, my wife gets to do both.
A customer was in her store the other night, just kinda hangin' around. This is not an unusual scenario, since the salespeople are on a rigid system of "ups," and you're not supposed to poach your coworkers' customers. Unless, of course, one of those coworkers is gaming the system and has already abandoned the "up" (which many of Eleanor's coworkers do, blatantly, and often basing their decisions on race, class and sexual orientation).
So Eleanor approached him. He made some small talk and indicated some vague interest in the stuff he was standing near, but he didn't ask for assistance, so she left him to his invisible salesperson.
Moments later, he was bolting out the front door with one of the store's computer monitors under his coat.
This is a pretty big store- it was the original Amherst Wegmans in its previous life, and most of that store's old footprint is now occupied by Eleanor's selling floor- so she had no chance of catching him once she realized that the data entry terminal he'd been near was suddenly missing. But she let out one hell of a yell, and others tried to pick up the trail before he booked.
The police arrived in due course, and apparently, the description and MO matched that of a guy who's been pulling this in various Amherst retail stores in the past few weeks. With everyone so trained by CSI:Everything these days, they tried to preserve the "crime scene" in case there were any prints near where the monitor had been. Needless to say, the cops didn't even bother.
Best of all, though, is that the booty, in and of itself, is useless. It connected by a fairly tiny interface to the company's server and has no independent computing power by itself. Yes, it was a flat-screen- $150 new out of the Dell box- and the most likely guess is that it sold for 20 on some eastside street corner an hour later.
Either that or somebody has solicited bids for a new computer system with a complete lack of memory. Bush or Hillary, take your pick.
A customer was in her store the other night, just kinda hangin' around. This is not an unusual scenario, since the salespeople are on a rigid system of "ups," and you're not supposed to poach your coworkers' customers. Unless, of course, one of those coworkers is gaming the system and has already abandoned the "up" (which many of Eleanor's coworkers do, blatantly, and often basing their decisions on race, class and sexual orientation).
So Eleanor approached him. He made some small talk and indicated some vague interest in the stuff he was standing near, but he didn't ask for assistance, so she left him to his invisible salesperson.
Moments later, he was bolting out the front door with one of the store's computer monitors under his coat.
This is a pretty big store- it was the original Amherst Wegmans in its previous life, and most of that store's old footprint is now occupied by Eleanor's selling floor- so she had no chance of catching him once she realized that the data entry terminal he'd been near was suddenly missing. But she let out one hell of a yell, and others tried to pick up the trail before he booked.
The police arrived in due course, and apparently, the description and MO matched that of a guy who's been pulling this in various Amherst retail stores in the past few weeks. With everyone so trained by CSI:Everything these days, they tried to preserve the "crime scene" in case there were any prints near where the monitor had been. Needless to say, the cops didn't even bother.
Best of all, though, is that the booty, in and of itself, is useless. It connected by a fairly tiny interface to the company's server and has no independent computing power by itself. Yes, it was a flat-screen- $150 new out of the Dell box- and the most likely guess is that it sold for 20 on some eastside street corner an hour later.
Either that or somebody has solicited bids for a new computer system with a complete lack of memory. Bush or Hillary, take your pick.
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Date: 2008-03-27 01:10 am (UTC)When I worked at Gordon's Jeweler's during college, I actually helped bust a girl who had stolen a credit card. That was satisfying.
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Date: 2008-03-27 01:13 am (UTC)You went to college a teeny bit later than me. Yes, they had credit cards back then. Made of plastic, not ivory tusks. But computer approvals were a good 5-10 years in the future, so every. Stinkin. V or MC had to be checked manually against the Shit List, a newsprinty publication they sent us every week with all the bad card numbers. We hated doing it, but there was something like a $50 reward if you bagged one. I maybe did once. The eyestrain was not worth it.
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Date: 2008-03-27 01:38 am (UTC)I worked at Sears for quite some time, and left Sears to work at Gordon's. But I was still working out a notice at Sears, even after starting at Gordon's. One day, I'd worked at Sears in the morning, until like 2 or so, then I went to Gordon's that afternoon. I noticed there was a new girl working in the clothing department at Sears.
Well, the next night, I was working at Gordon's, and a girl came in and tried to open a Gordon's credit account. We had the ability at that time, to just use the Visa or Mastercard that you had, to open a new account, but we still had to ask some questions...social, address, etc. Basic stuff. This girl had a hard time telling me any information, and told me that she'd left her ID somewhere else. She was just acting fishy. So then I noticed that the name on the card sounded familiar (the Discover card she was trying to use to open the new account), but I couldn't place it. We didn't open her an account, she got no merchandise, and eventually left in a huff. But I kept thinking "where do I know that name..?" Finally it dawned on me, it was Janet, one of the ladies I worked with at Sears! She had a rather distinctive last name. So I called down to Sears real quick and asked her if her Discover card was missing. It was, indeed.
Long story short, she called Discover, this girl had racked up huge amounts on her credit card, but the stupid girl CAME INTO WORK THE NEXT DAY!! So the security at Sears had me come down and sit in a little room with the one-sided windows like you'd see in a police station. I was able to ID the girl easily, she was arrested and...that was it. I got a $50 mall gift certificate for my efforts.