Well, it SEEMED like a good idea at the time

This new IT staffer is assigned to the PC support group, and one of her duties is to receive and check in all hardware and software that's been ordered, according to a pilot fish working in the department.
"The deliveries were made to the office by our internal mail staff," fish says. "She had instructed them to leave the packages outside her door if she was not there, since she was frequently out on help or repair calls.

"In most cases this was not a problem, as she or another technician would just move the boxes inside the office and she would process them later."

But after one Monday holiday, there's a problem. Like many of her colleagues, this staffer took Friday off to stretch the weekend to four days. According to the mail staff, a box of new hard drives arrived late Friday afternoon. As usual, the package was left outside the door, right beside the wastebaskets from the office.

Now it's gone.

"On Tuesday morning, our security staff was interviewing everyone concerning the missing shipment of drives," says fish. "Upon investigation and review of the camera tapes, we observed one of the cleaning staff had loaded the box in his trash cart, assuming it was trash.

"He went down the elevator and dumped it into the larger rollaway dumpster.

"We also observed the dumpster being exchanged for a new one on Monday morning.

"Needless to say, after that there was a new procedure for checking in equipment and software!"