thief or moran

[asofel]

I work in a normal office building in an office at the end of the hallway. Suite 503. A minute ago someone just stuck their head into my room and asked if this was Suite 509, or if we knew where it was.

At first I thought the woman was just dumb, or maybe 509 doesn't have a plaque on its door. Then my boss im's me and asks if someone just wandered in, and I told him the story. He said "probably a thief" which reminded me of similar happenings a year ago in our old office a block away. People would wander in looking for "Joe", a different office #, and someone actually hid under our CEO's desk when he thought he had left, only to run out quickly when confronted.

As I write this is seems fairly straightforward, so no poll. Instead, has this ever happened in your office? Similar stories?

[peterchi]

When I worked in a lab in the Biology department as an undergrad, one time there was some sketchy-looking dude walking around and asking for certain chemicals, claiming that he was from the lab of another professor, who didn't exist.

Cops got called real fast. This wasn't too far after 9/11 either.

[lem45216]

When i was at school and we had P.E. this one time, we got changed and went out onto the field. While we were out there a bloke came in the changing room. Stole all the boy's (inc mine) trousers, cut them up, and left them on the side of a motorway.

Obviously he's on the extreme side of moron/thief, and didn't really have any business hanging around the school anyway, but still, it was quite annoying.

[HopeydaFish]

We had a "normal" looking guy walking through our office the other day without a security pass. Someone confronted him, and he claimed that he was looking for "Peter". He didn't act nervous or anything, so the person who confronted him let the guy go. About 20 minutes later, my co-worker noticed that her purse was missing, as did someone else in another office. When she called to get her credit cards cancelled, she found out that he'd already made a couple of purchases at the mall across the street.

The guy is a retard, though. He was caught on the security cameras and when the police saw the video they knew who he was right away. Apparently he'd done the same thing not too long ago in other offices in the area.

[Escape]

[ QUOTE ]
When i was at school and we had P.E. this one time, we got changed and went out onto the field. While we were out there a bloke came in the changing room. Stole all the boy's (inc mine) trousers, cut them up, and left them on the side of a motorway.

Obviously he's on the extreme side of moron/thief, and didn't really have any business hanging around the school anyway, but still, it was quite annoying.

[/ QUOTE ]

haha very nice.

[asofel]

[ QUOTE ]
We had a "normal" looking guy walking through our office the other day without a security pass. Someone confronted him, and he claimed that he was looking for "Peter". He didn't act nervous or anything, so the person who confronted him let the guy go. About 20 minutes later, my co-worker noticed that her purse was missing, as did someone else in another office. When she called to get her credit cards cancelled, she found out that he'd already made a couple of purchases at the mall across the street.

The guy is a retard, though. He was caught on the security cameras and when the police saw the video they knew who he was right away. Apparently he'd done the same thing not too long ago in other offices in the area.

[/ QUOTE ]

some people really are stupid...glad they got him though....

[SL__72]

I have a feeling that there is a good chance that this isn't an "either/or" scenario.

[asofel]

hehe, very good point.

[B Dids]

We've had this happen a few times, guy wandering around being "confused" and then eventually somebody's laptop or something was missing.

We also just have confused students wandering round (adult learners, so it's not like demographics is always the best clue) and you can tell the difference.

i think maybe she really was lost...you don't have anything worth stealing in that office anyway. it's not like she could have just walk out with your computer or something...

[asofel]

[ QUOTE ]
i think maybe she really was lost...you don't have anything worth stealing in that office anyway. it's not like she could have just walk out with your computer or something...

[/ QUOTE ]

as someone mentioned before, purses and other items are worth stealing, and last year people actually did steal hardware...although that was later in the day.

[theben]

tell her: "get a brain, moran"

[ElSapo]

[ QUOTE ]
As I write this is seems fairly straightforward, so no poll. Instead, has this ever happened in your office? Similar stories?

[/ QUOTE ]

This is really common, actually.

Side note - as we're in the same building, I think, I wonder if I'll see her.

I'm relatively certain this is a common thing - people casing offices, wandering around. They don't act nervous, as someone pointed out, because by and large they haven't done anything yet. They claim to be lost or whatever, and it's done.

In the past, in other offices, the same thing has happened. It's common in D.C. for [censored] to start vanishing off desks shortly after.