First I would like to say to everyone that if you read yesterday’s entry then I would like assure you that my birthday hasn’t been miserable at all. It’s been a very wonderful day and the people around me have all be great. A fabulous day indeed.
Also, if you read entry then you know that I have a bit of a problem with some missing Palm Vx’s: one broken, one not. Well, the good news is that I can tell you all that I am not crazy and the buildings security has identified the culprit. I’m not saying they caught him, I’m just saying they’ve identified him. You see, our building has video surveilance and the moment I realized something was amiss we notified the buildings security. After spending most of yesterday and half of today reviewing tapes they finally ran into something. I’ll try to explain everything as it went down.
At approximately 3:53 PM PST on Monday, March 18th a middle aged man of African American decent (hereto known as "the suspect") entered the building wearing blue jeans, a white button down long sleeve dress shirt, a dark hat with the letters LA on the front and a black backpack slung over his right shoulder. At this same time the lone security guard for the building was doing
his mandated "rounds" and was not at the desk. The Suspect boarded an elevator and proceeds to the 7th floor. He enters two offices and quickly leaves them as well and makes his way to the eighth floor at approximately 3:57 PM PST.
At around the same time building security returns to the security desk in the lobby. A brief viewing of the monitors leads them to discover that a person from the 24 Hour Fitness office (located in Suite 530) is apparently going door to door in the building trying to sign up memberships. Since soliciting within the building is not allowed he proceeds to call an elevator and head to the 9th floor where at…
3:58 PM PST the 24 Hour Fitness employee enters the front door of my work while I’m at the printer getting an article about a problem with Outlook XP I’m trying to fix on the VP’s computer. A quick acknowledgement of her sends her packing as I inform her I already have a membership.
3:59 PM PST the 24 Hour Fitness employee is greeted in the hall outside our offices by security and is taken back down to suite 530 where the security guard begins to tell their manager why this activity can’t be done in the building. At this same time I go to the very back of the office to tell the VP what is wrong with his computer. He is in a very lax conference call so I wait patiently at his desk to tell him the news.
At 4:00 PM PST The Suspect calls for an elevator on the 8th floor after entering one suite and then proceeding back to the elevators to move up to the 9th floor.
At 4:02 PM PST The Suspect steps off the elevator from the 8th floor and proceeds to go down the east end of the hall. He finds nothing but empty office suites and then proceeds back up the hallway.
Now, at 4:03:02 PST we begin conjecture. You see, the end of the hallway where our suite is happens to be a blind spot for the camera because you walk under the camera to get in our door. This means that you are out of site once you get within 6 feet of our suite door. At this time The Suspect steps in to the blind spot. Within the blind spot are three doors: one to the North (locked
and occupied), one to the West (locked and unoccupied) and one to the South (unlocked and occupied and the office where I work). At 4:04:45 PM PST The Suspect steps back out of the blind spot and goes back to the elevators to proceed to the 10th floor.
So The Suspect steps into the blind spot and is out of camera for 1 minute and 43 seconds.(I know this doesn’t sounds like a lot of time but sit there and just do nothing for one minute and 43 seconds. Seems forever don’t it?) By simple deductive reasoning we can assume that he took this time to enter our offices and have a look around. My office, as well as the front door, are at the end of a hallway and are actually a blind spot for the rest of the office. This means that The Suspect has a full minute and 43 seconds to enter, not be seen, proceed directly into my office, quickly look around, see the small electronic gadgets, quickly throw them in his bag, turn around and leave undetected. I won’t bother going on with detailed times because after the 10th floor this guy got out of the building. I returned to my office shortly after he was in it and didn’t even notice the two small things missing from my desk. Security gets back down to their desk after he has left an no one is the wiser.
The most frightening thing out of this isn’t the theft itself but just the thought that this guy was in an office where at least 7 people were working around at the time and no one knew. I also find the amazing chain of events that allowed this guy to go undetected simply astounding. Had the 24 Hour Fitness employee not been going door to door the security guard may have been at his desk and noticed the guy going from the 8th to the 9th and 10th floors. Had I not been waiting on the conference call to end I would have been in my office and simply saw someone walk in who probably would have covered his ass by asking me where the bathroom was. So many little things that easily contributed to a very simple theft.
Anyway, we know who did it. Security seems to think these guys like to come back when they find an easy mark. I think they won’t be back because I’m the only one that got nailed. That means he’d probably move on to somewhere else where there might be a chance for a greater looting. I just know that if he doesn’t come back then the building security will print his picture from a
screen grab off the video and put little posters in the glass doors for a week.
If they do I’ll snag one and make a scan of The Suspect.
Thanks for dropping in for my little story.
-WW