Ghosts Busters Update

Last Tuesday after the theft was discovered, we asked our Admin to send some security personnel over to conduct a desk-to-desk search. Unknown to us, Lotta had already told two other officemates the identity of the thief. So these two plus Lotta were watching the movements of the thief while the security personnel were going through their search.

Later that evening these two decided to tell me the identity because of an incident that happened earlier: when I was trying to call Admin to get them to send security to conduct the search, I approached several officemates to ask for help. One of them was very reluctant to do so. She even said, “Huy, wala bang employee rights na ma-va-violate sa search na yan?!” In exasperation I blurted out loud to the others, “Ito talaga si Miss X, ayaw tumulong! Akala mo tuloy siya ang magnanakaw!”

It turns out it was Miss X whom the ghost identified as the thief!

Well, well, well!

When I said that statement I was just joking out of annoyance. But the two who already knew Miss X was the thief were taken aback by what I said. So they decided to tell me what they knew.

It also made sense that Miss X, who often goes home promptly at 6pm, waited until 7pm before going home. That was when the security people finished their inspection and left our office; during the inspection, they posted a guard who would inspect the bags of people going out of the office. She waited until the guard left.

So now we’re conniving what to do next.

First, we have to find out if Lotta’s “friend” is wrong or right. We’re asking Lotta to get more details from her “friend”; the more damningly specific the details, the better for us. But given how Miss X behaved the day of the theft, she’s now our prime suspect. And we want to lessen her chances, if not stop her altogether from victimizing another one.

We want to scare her silly. I thought of leaving an anonymous note on her desk, like an “I know what you did last summer” type of note. My officemates are thinking of getting a new SIM card and start texting her everyday, “Nabenta mo na ba yung 6220?” Or maybe leave a brochure of the Nokia 6220 on her desk everyday.

I thought of a more elaborate, more dangerous scheme: announce to everyone that we already know who the culprit is, and is giving him/her until Monday next week to quietly return the phone. Otherwise we will whisper to everyone one at a time the identity of the thief. If Monday comes and the phone isn’t returned, we’ll start the whispering campaign. But here’s the twist. We’ll whisper to Miss X someone else’s name (we’ll get the approval and connivance of that person, of course). To the rest, we’ll whisper Miss X’s name plus the name we’ll whisper to Miss X. That way, if Miss X asks them who the thief was, they’ll mention the name given to her. That way everyone can be wary the next time Miss X approaches their workplace, but without tipping her off that we know she’s the thief.

Tonight over dinner we the plotters will meet and discuss what we’ll do. I’m thinking of stealing Miss X’s phone in retaliation. Well, we’ll see later.