Tweet
Kangaroo Court
I never really thought about that term. . .until yesterday. I believe I sat in one for over 3 hours. I work in a small diner in a very small town. Yesterday my boss, we'll will call him Bill informed me that one of our regular customers, who is also a city policeman, we will call him Tom, wanted to see me in the office. When I walked in Tom told me to have a seat and asked me "Molly how long have you known me?" I answered him about five years, he then tells me how he thinks the world of me yada yada yada. . .but he then says there are some things on the security cameras that look suspicious. I said "Tom are you accusing me of stealing?" he then says that he himself has witnessed me taking money that is not mine. Now I need to take a few steps back and explain a little of how things are done where I work. Most of our customers are regulars, a lot of them are what we call our coffee drinkers and a cup of coffee costs one dollar and they give us one dollar for a tip, they have the tendency to toss both dollars on the counter by the register as they walk out the door. I ring up one for coffee put the other in my pocket, as it is my tip. Never been a problem before. Okay, back to the office, Tom grills me for quite some time about it, I'm crying, upset, mad, hurt etc. I ask to see these tapes with the suspicious things on them and he says " now we really don't need to go through all that, how about this if you have been skimming and start with a new slate if not you have nothing to worry about." I say "no way, I will not have anyone thinking I have stolen when I haven't. Finally I say to him "bring in a lie detector, I'll take it. Now the table starts to turn and he says "now Molly you don't want to do that, that involves paperwork and I haven't filed any paperwork, he grills me a little more, then finally says he doesn't believe I have stolen anything and that he may have been mistaken in what he saw. He then calls Bill into the office and tells him I am willing to take polygraph, Bills starts to say that polygraphs are not admissible in court but before he gets the sentence out Tom hushes him, by this point I'm getting madder, I say that's bull they are admissible. This goes on for some more time and Tom and Bill reach the conclusion that so things don't "look" suspicious on the camera we should write up tickets for the coffees. By now I really feel as if I am in the Twilight Zone. Tom decides he doesn't think I have stolen anything and heads on out to the coffee drinkers table. As I'm sitting there with Tom he informs me that the register isn't really where he thinks most of the theft is going on. I won't go into more detail on that, but will add a few more things. During all of this they accused one of my coworkers of the same things as me. They say a lady that worked there before was fired for stealing, to the best of my knowledge she wasn't. I know for a fact that Bill has accused me of stealing to other people. Now on to Tom, he as I said is a police officer. He was in uniform and on the clock yesterday. But what he did for Bill yesterday was a personal favor, no paperwork, yet he portrayed himself to me as an officer of the law. By the end of all of this both agree I haven
I never really thought about that term. . .until yesterday. I believe I sat in one for over 3 hours. I work in a small diner in a very small town. Yesterday my boss, we'll will call him Bill informed me that one of our regular customers, who is also a city policeman, we will call him Tom, wanted to see me in the office. When I walked in Tom told me to have a seat and asked me "Molly how long have you known me?" I answered him about five years, he then tells me how he thinks the world of me yada yada yada. . .but he then says there are some things on the security cameras that look suspicious. I said "Tom are you accusing me of stealing?" he then says that he himself has witnessed me taking money that is not mine. Now I need to take a few steps back and explain a little of how things are done where I work. Most of our customers are regulars, a lot of them are what we call our coffee drinkers and a cup of coffee costs one dollar and they give us one dollar for a tip, they have the tendency to toss both dollars on the counter by the register as they walk out the door. I ring up one for coffee put the other in my pocket, as it is my tip. Never been a problem before. Okay, back to the office, Tom grills me for quite some time about it, I'm crying, upset, mad, hurt etc. I ask to see these tapes with the suspicious things on them and he says " now we really don't need to go through all that, how about this if you have been skimming and start with a new slate if not you have nothing to worry about." I say "no way, I will not have anyone thinking I have stolen when I haven't. Finally I say to him "bring in a lie detector, I'll take it. Now the table starts to turn and he says "now Molly you don't want to do that, that involves paperwork and I haven't filed any paperwork, he grills me a little more, then finally says he doesn't believe I have stolen anything and that he may have been mistaken in what he saw. He then calls Bill into the office and tells him I am willing to take polygraph, Bills starts to say that polygraphs are not admissible in court but before he gets the sentence out Tom hushes him, by this point I'm getting madder, I say that's bull they are admissible. This goes on for some more time and Tom and Bill reach the conclusion that so things don't "look" suspicious on the camera we should write up tickets for the coffees. By now I really feel as if I am in the Twilight Zone. Tom decides he doesn't think I have stolen anything and heads on out to the coffee drinkers table. As I'm sitting there with Tom he informs me that the register isn't really where he thinks most of the theft is going on. I won't go into more detail on that, but will add a few more things. During all of this they accused one of my coworkers of the same things as me. They say a lady that worked there before was fired for stealing, to the best of my knowledge she wasn't. I know for a fact that Bill has accused me of stealing to other people. Now on to Tom, he as I said is a police officer. He was in uniform and on the clock yesterday. But what he did for Bill yesterday was a personal favor, no paperwork, yet he portrayed himself to me as an officer of the law. By the end of all of this both agree I haven
Comment