July 12
An MCSD officer named Jamal was arrested, and fired, for stealing from lost and found while I was enjoying my weekend. He had exposed a flaw in the lost and found system, and it was rather ingenious the way he exploited it.
What he would do is have his girlfriend claim money that had been turned in to lost and found. Which isn’t too bad a scam, really. The concept is something that has occurred to most of us, I think, though Jamal was the only one crooked enough to actually do it.
The way it works is when an employee turns in a lost and found item he can claim it after 30 days if the owner hasn’t picked it up. Suspicion started falling on Jamal last week. First, people started talking about how Jamal would, when manning the podium, always be scanning the lost and found log on the computer. This is suspicious because unless you are logging an item in, or returning an item to a guest, there is really no reason to be in the lost and found system.
And then people started commenting that money they had turned in had been claimed. Among them was Rich, who found $500 last week near the craps pit which was claimed the next day. It is rare when lost money is claimed by the owner.
I am not entirely sure who tipped the investigators off, but over the weekend Jamal’s girlfriend came by to claim some money and she was taken to the CSO for questioning and she spilled the beans in fairly short order and she and Jamal were arrested, which sort of ended his career at MCSD.
Here was your outside lineup last night:
Mary 1 – Guy
Mary 2 – moi
Baker 1 – Redneck Randy
I spent the entire night in the garage. They were doing some digging outside and power was mostly out to the garage, so Redneck Randy and I spent the night in there while Guy spent the night guarding the digging. After I had turned in my scanner I was BSing with Radtke, who was manning Eddie – 2. We ended up discussing furniture, and it provided an interesting insight into the bachelor furniture underground.
My friend Debbie is getting new furniture. Debbie’s a classy broad and her old stuff is very nice and I am getting some of it, at no charge to yours truly, of course. I offered Radtke my old furniture because all he has is a futon and a TV and he snapped up my offer, without even being entirely sure what he was getting. The understanding amongst us bachelors is I wouldn’t have offered it if it didn’t meet certain, rock bottom standards, meaning it’s more or less bug-free and not completely ripped to shreds.
Here is your Outside lineup for tonight:
Mary 1 – Guy
Mary 2 – moi
Baker 1 – Redneck Randy