Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Evening

BEWARE!! VERY LONG POST!! :)

One of the receptionists was on vacation all of last week at our work, so there were only 2 receptionists, Joy & Jayne. Friday was Joy's turn to close, so we came in around 10 am, since we would possibly be able to leave a little earlier than 8 pm.

I work in the accounting department with my brother Jacob. He & the CFO were out of the office on Friday, so there was just myself and the Accounts Receivable guy here. I had pretty much finished all of my work during the week, so I didn't really have anything to do. So, I went up front to the receptionist desk and ask if they needed any help with anything. They told me I could sit up front and answer the phones while they ran around and did some things they needed to get done. I left my laptop, bag, & purse back at my desk while I was up front, since I didn't know if I would be going back to my desk later in the day. The day was going pretty well, Joy & Jayne were able to get their things done and I was able to do something productive.

Around 3:30 pm, one of the runners came up front to ask me an accounting question, so he walked back with me to my desk and I gave him the info he needed from my computer. Since I had been up front for a good part of my day, I decided to close up my computer and bring all of my stuff up front, so that it wasn't just left unattended all day. When I brought my stuff up front, I placed it in our inner corner hallway, by the receptionist desk. There is a coat rack, and two chairs in the corner. So I put my laptop case under one of the chairs and placed my purse and bag next to the chair on the floor. (I know what you're thinking. You're saying to yourself, why would you do a stupid thing like that? You're just setting yourself up for trouble. But just hold your horses and read the rest of the story) Then, I went and sat up at the front desk and continued answering phones, while Joy was going around the office seeing if anyone was staying late.

Joy came back up front and said no one was staying late, so we could leave as early as 6:30 pm if we wanted to. It was about 5 or 5:30 pm, so we had about an hour to wait to go home. I thought since I was sitting up front, I would grab my Tetris game and play that while we were waiting to go home. When I went to get my game out of my bag, I noticed that my purse was not there. I thought maybe Joy put it away while I wasn't paying attention. So I asked her if she had seen it, and she said she hadn't and asked me if I had even brought it up front with my other things. So, I went back into the accounting office and looked to make sure I didn't accidentally leave it at my desk. It wasn't at my desk, so I went back up front to look around. Joy thought maybe Jayne accidentally picked it up on her way out and either put it somewhere or took it home with her. So we called Jayne on her cell phone & home phone, and she didn't answer at either place. I walked around the office looking in the offices where people were to see if someone had placed it in an office or something. I couldn't find it, so I just kept on trying to reach Jayne. Finally after about an hour of waiting for her, she called me back and said she hadn't seen my purse and that she didn't take it or put it anywhere. So I thanked her for calling me back and then all the stress & tension that was mounting came to a head. :) I paged Joy, who was in the kitchen cleaning the coffee pots, and I broke down crying. I couldn't believe I got my purse stolen and that I had been that stupid to put it somewhere where someone could take it. I walked around the office one more time and noticed that the cleaning lady had just come up to start cleaning, so I asked her if she had happened to see my purse and she told me she didn't.

Joy called Security for our building and they said that we needed to call the police. So I called the police and told them my purse had been stolen, and they sent an officer out to meet me at the front doors. After I got off the phone with the police station, the cleaning lady came and said she had just found my purse on a table in one of the employee's office right next to the receptionist desk. (This employee had been out of town all week, so I knew someone else must have put it in there.) My purse was sitting on the table with my wallet plopped on top of it and on the table next to it was a recent picture of one of my nieces and a Kroger receipt.

I started going through my purse making sure everything was there. I noticed I couldn't find my debit card, but I just figured I dropped it in the car before we came to work in the morning. (We had stopped at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and I didn't put my card away in my wallet, I just threw it into my purse.) Then, another lady from our work was telling Joy & I that when she had someone get into her purse, all they stole was her credit cards. Well, after she said that I noticed that my credit card was missing and also the $20 that I had just gotten out when I went to Kroger. So I ran downstairs to my car and checked and made sure that I hadn't dropped my debit card in my car. The card wasn't in my car. So, now I've figured out that I've lost a debit card, credit card & $20. So, I stayed downstairs and waited for the police to come.

When he came, I told him that we had found the purse, but that my cards & cash were gone. So he came up to our work and filed the report. He waited while I called my bank and told them that my cards were stolen. They cancelled my cards, but said that the person had already used my card at the gas station. They tried to use my credit card, but since I haven't paid my credit card off, it was denied. Then they used my debit card, and of course that worked, cause I had money in the bank. :( They told me to keep an eye on my accounts and make sure that the charges coming in were mine. They also told me to come down to the bank and sign an affidavit if I found unauthorized charges on my cards.

Meanwhile, Joy was in the mailroom at work, trying to rewind the footage on the security camera. She ended up having to call one of our co-workers to tell her how to do it. She finally figured out how to rewind it, but the time on the camera was an hour slow. The police and I stood and waited to see if she found anything. He stayed for a little bit and then told us to call if we found anything and then we could bring it in for the police to see. A little after he left, Joy found a lady (with a long ponytail, jean shortalls, white shirt and white tennis shoes) that wasn't supposed to be on this floor. She came up the stairs, peeked around the door, closed it, then opened it back up, came out and walked past an employee. (Who just walked by and kept walking) Then she got a drink and went towards the logistics department, where the door was wide open, walked through and then came back out 4 minutes later and went down the elevator.

Here's what we suspect happened. The lady came up the stairs at 4:02 pm, walked towards the logistics dept., went around the corner, up towards the front where my belongings were, grabbed my purse, ran into the office next to it, went through my purse, took my credit cards, then came out at 4:06 pm the same way she went in. Then she went to the gas station and started charging. She used my debit card 5 times on gas totaling $265.81.

I went to the bank on Monday and they told me that I couldn't sign anything until the charges had cleared through my bank. The charges cleared on Tuesday, but I wasn't able to get to the bank, so I went on Wednesday and signed the papers to say that none of those charges were mine. They faxed it out and told me to just keep watching my account.

One of our video guys said he would make some CD's of the surveillance footage on Monday. He was busy all day and didn't get a chance to do it until around 6 pm on Monday. By that time the footage had looped and it was lost forever. :( So now I don't have proof that she was up in our office, so hopefully they can find her on the surveillance camera at one of the gas stations.

I called the police Wednesday to try and let them know that we didn't have a copy of the surveillance camera, but they told me that I needed to talk to a detective, they asked for my name and number and said someone would call me back. I haven't received a call yet, I guess I'll have to call them back and just keep on them.

So now I can't use my account for anything. I had my car payment scheduled to be taken out on the 31st, but had to cancel it, since I don't have access to my account. My paycheck from work, normallly get direct deposited into my account, but we had to cancel that also. It's basically just a inconvenience.

I've learned my lesson to not leave my purse out in the open and to always have an eye on it. I now lock my purse up in the cabinet at the front desk (I don't have anywhere at my desk that I can lock my purse up) and lock my computer with a password when I leave my desk.

Unfortunately, we have had several things stolen from our company, so we're trying to be careful and on guard.