Here's a common workplace archetype: the one who's smarter than everyone else.
It certainly was an unusual start to the day when "Lexi" from accounting was dragged out of the office in handcuffs just after we'd opened. Everyone certainly wondered the same thing: what the fuck is this all about?
Two weeks before I had gone over to accounting to talk about some work related thing and as always happens in a business office, the conversation soon turned to other topics. I mentioned that I had seen "Catch Me If You Can" for the first time and I was amazed at how clever the guy was who ran all the cons (Frank Abagnale, played by Leo). His specialty was check fraud and Lexi just smiled and nodded at me in response.
Little did I know that she was running her own little check fraud scam at that very moment. As I stood there she probably thought she was pretty clever and that in contrast I was a sucker for earning money by doing my job.
Perhaps I should've realized something was off when she rolled up with fancy new rims and went on about her weekend jaunts to Vegas. But I was focused on my own life and I didn't know how much money she made so it didn't occur to me that something else might have been going on.
She handled checks coming in from clients and apparently came up with a pretty convincing way to make it so that the checks were made out to her and not the company. There has to have been more to it than that but I don't remember all the details.
She would've continued to get away with it except that she got lazy. Like many criminals before her she was undone by her own hubris. In some of her later frauds her name sloped up diagonally instead of going right across the "Pay To The Order Of" line like it should have. But she had been getting away with it for so long she figured she didn't need to be so careful and that everyone was too stupid to notice. But someone at the bank did notice and alerted law enforcement.
From there it was easy for them to connect the dots and away she went. I had trouble finding information about it and I lost interest not long after so I don't know what happened, but I believe I heard that she didn't get jail time.
She was actually the second person (both women) to get caught stealing from the company. I imagine this type of petty thievery is more common than people would think. I'm sure she rationalized it as she was such a fantastic employee and she deserved so much more money than she was getting while the masters made so much for doing nothing. Therefore it wasn't morally wrong to steal because the system is unfair. This mentality combined with her arrogance led to this corporate Robin Hood behavior where she stole from the rich to give to the self. I expect many others go through the same thought process.
It certainly was an unusual start to the day when "Lexi" from accounting was dragged out of the office in handcuffs just after we'd opened. Everyone certainly wondered the same thing: what the fuck is this all about?
Two weeks before I had gone over to accounting to talk about some work related thing and as always happens in a business office, the conversation soon turned to other topics. I mentioned that I had seen "Catch Me If You Can" for the first time and I was amazed at how clever the guy was who ran all the cons (Frank Abagnale, played by Leo). His specialty was check fraud and Lexi just smiled and nodded at me in response.
Little did I know that she was running her own little check fraud scam at that very moment. As I stood there she probably thought she was pretty clever and that in contrast I was a sucker for earning money by doing my job.
Perhaps I should've realized something was off when she rolled up with fancy new rims and went on about her weekend jaunts to Vegas. But I was focused on my own life and I didn't know how much money she made so it didn't occur to me that something else might have been going on.
She handled checks coming in from clients and apparently came up with a pretty convincing way to make it so that the checks were made out to her and not the company. There has to have been more to it than that but I don't remember all the details.
She would've continued to get away with it except that she got lazy. Like many criminals before her she was undone by her own hubris. In some of her later frauds her name sloped up diagonally instead of going right across the "Pay To The Order Of" line like it should have. But she had been getting away with it for so long she figured she didn't need to be so careful and that everyone was too stupid to notice. But someone at the bank did notice and alerted law enforcement.
From there it was easy for them to connect the dots and away she went. I had trouble finding information about it and I lost interest not long after so I don't know what happened, but I believe I heard that she didn't get jail time.
She was actually the second person (both women) to get caught stealing from the company. I imagine this type of petty thievery is more common than people would think. I'm sure she rationalized it as she was such a fantastic employee and she deserved so much more money than she was getting while the masters made so much for doing nothing. Therefore it wasn't morally wrong to steal because the system is unfair. This mentality combined with her arrogance led to this corporate Robin Hood behavior where she stole from the rich to give to the self. I expect many others go through the same thought process.