Posted by Jim at April 12th, 2004

My workplace got broken into last week.

The guy apparently dumped out the contents of one of our boxes and put stuff into the box, grabbing small things that he could carry away. I’m going to guess that it was a hurried and not particularly well planned robbery because of what he took and how it was taken.

Stolen items: a radio, a couple pda’s, a postage scale that was the same shape as a laptop, and somewhere around $50 in cash (mostly change).

Moved: The television. It was taken off its stand and then apparently discarded because of its weight.

Damage: GRACE’s business manager’s file cabinet. It had been locked. Clearly the adding machine identified it as our office’s financial center.

Mysteriously Untouched: Many things. There were a number of small items (some of them within the broken file cabinet) that would have caused us great financial pain if stolen. Apparently the thief did not take the time to be thorough–not that I have any complaints with that.

An example of the craziness of this break-in: Our business manager had 37 cents in a small envelope tacked to his memo board. The envelope was ripped open, the money taken. By contrast, one person’s unlocked drawer contained a surprising amount of cash. This was untouched.

It is likely that the thief was hiding in the building while people were here. Only the front door is open and it only stays open till 5pm. The janitor reported noticing that the speakers of a radio were there, but the main box of the radio was missing. By the time we came in the next morning, the speakers were also gone.

One of my co-workers was actually working late that night. It’s a given that she was alone with this guy and had no idea.

So far there is no word about whether the police caught the person. I’m guessing they haven’t, but I’m told they did get some good fingerprints off the television.

My personal theory is that it’s probably someone the office helped (or turned away). Normal people would not think of a couple cash-strapped non-profits as great places to rob. By contrast, someone a church had sent to GRACE or ACCESS for financial assistance might well view us as a place full of cash. ACCESS has been robbed before by a person in exactly that situation.