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A short time ago I encountered a bump in the road of personal freedom.
A criminal bastard invaded my work and my life.
The story to follow is the actual report made to the police. Items in brackets have been edited so as not to give out information about myself or others that you should not have.
I came into [work] at about 5:45 am, on Sunday December 15th with [my girlfriend who is the network admin for my office] to address a network connection issue that was reported to us at 5:00 am by [a co-worker on the nightshift]. We spoke to [the co-worker] for about 2 minutes in the network operations center and then began to walk down the hall to go upstairs where the equipment was that needed to be checked on.
As we past the emergency exit door we could hear the sounds of banging and scraping coming from the other side of the door. I told [my girlfriend] to go back into the secured area and lock the door.
As [my co-worker] an I came back to where the emergency exit door was we saw a black male go into the first room on the right side of the hall where our satellite testing equipment was located.
[My co-worker] then addressed the man as I blocked the emergency door. The man then went past [my co-worker] and stopped at the door where [my co-worker] and myself told him that he needed to cooperate with us and get on the floor.
The man then tried to force his way out through me at which point [my co-worker] and myself began to struggle with him. We forced him away from the door into the hall. [my girlfriend] heard the shouting and came out to see if we needed to contact the police. I told her to call the police immediately. She went back into the secured area and contacted the police.
The man was still standing at this time and was fighting with [my co-worker] and myself. We forced him to the ground and attempted to get his arms behind his back. He would alternate between pleading with us to let him go saying "pleases don't do this" and threatening us saying "You better let me go."
[My co-worker] and I continued to struggle with the man on the floor for several minutes (Aprx. 15 Mins.) during the struggle the man pulled out a knife and a crowbar, each of which [my co-worker] took and threw down the hall away from the struggle. A set of keys fell out of his pocket during the struggle and he grabbed them in his left hand so that the keys were sticking between his fingers. He attempted to get that hand free from me by pushing it towards my face with the keys pointing at me. I eventually managed to pry the keys from his hands and threw them into the lunchroom next to us.
The struggle moved into the lunchroom where I could see the lights of the police flashing outside. The man broke free my grasp and got up. I told [my co-worker] to let him go knowing the police were outside and that I had the mans car keys as well as his cell phone which had also fallen out of his pocket during the struggle. [my co-worker] continued to block the man from going towards the emergency exit and I stood in front of the exit door.
At some point during the struggle [my girlfriend] ran down the hall to let the police into the building. The police came and arrested the man at that point.
At some point in the confrontation the man stated "I'm going to hurt you."
Immediately after the police came in I began to have a severe asthma attack. I was unable to breath and was vomiting heavily. I was then taken to [the local] Hospital where I was treated for the asthma attack and broken ribs.
OK. That’s the official report. Now here is the full story. This "man", I use the term loosely and will not use it again, broke into my work. He was attempting to steal potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars from my company and in essence from me. How is that from you? You may ask. This is how.
The company I work for is in hard times, as are so many technology companies at the moment. We are just managing to stay afloat. No one has had a raise in over a year. Many have been laid off. We are all working a lot harder just to hold onto our jobs in the hopes that things will get better.
The loss of our essential and extremely expensive equipment could be just enough to decide if the company makes it or closes the doors forever. Even if they stayed open it may mean the loss of another employee or smaller or no raises.
Insurance will cover it, wont they? Maybe. But for any of you out there who have worked with the insurance companies you know that they do there best to pay off only what they absolutely have to. Here is the thing. The equipment is old and may be insured for it's original value. To replace it now would easily be double the cost. Mind you we are not talking about a $100 VCR, not even a $60,000 spectrum analyzer. We are talking about several $400,000 routers that you could carry under your arm. And testing equipment that has a handle on it to carry it from point to point which could cost $800,000 to replace. These are the numbers we are looking at. $1,000,000 could have walked out the door under his criminal arm.
This bastard did not work for this money. I and my co-workers did. This bastard has not in fact worked for anything. He, in the words of our city police chief, is "a career criminal". He has a long record and an even longer list of arrests. He would prefer to let the rest of us work hard every day and then spend one quick hour taking what we worked for.
This was not a desperate man. This is not a man "just trying to feed his family". He drove a nicer car than mine to the crime seen. He is a greedy bastard. He is lazy bastard. He is a coward. And now he is in jail. Possibly for the rest of his, hopefully, miserable life.
There is also a cost to you. When this bastard steals from my company and the others he hit before, that company has to make up the loss. They cannot just accept the loss; they would most certainly go out of business if they did. The cost of the theft is passed to you in higher costs for the goods and services. The mere fact that the bastards exist in this world means that your costs are higher in order to cover the theft insurance that every company has to pay.
There are too many bastards out there right now. Preparing to take your wallet, your bag, your stereo, your car. Planning to break into your house and steel all that you have worked so hard for. And most of all steeling away your hard work, your piece of mind, your faith in humanity. This is what we all loose as long as the bastard are out there.
Can anything be done? Does anything need to be done?
At the moment the bastard is in jail. He is claiming it was all a mistake. He is claiming that he did not assault me. He is claiming to be the victim. Soon this will be in the courts. Soon I will have answers to both the questions. If this bastard is aloud to walk our streets again in less than 20 years then there will be a new and enraged rant here for all to see. If the system decides that this bastard no longer deserves to set foot in our world again then all will be well.
At least until the next bastard comes along.
Thank you,
From just another American
~Kid Kaos
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