49. Martha Was History
I was the director of a county history museum, and we had just installed a new security system with cameras and motion detectors in each room. It also recorded when the two entry doors were locked and unlocked at the start and end of each business day. One Monday morning, I checked the video replay from Sunday. What I saw left me in shock. It was Martha, the weekend receptionist, and her boyfriend…making out on the front desk.
They had to stop when the front door opened, and several museum guests entered. Martha and her beau waited until the guests left, then went into the restroom to get busy. While they were busy in the bathroom, a visitor came into the main entrance, walked around several rooms, and left. Martha and her beau emerged 45 minutes later, then left for lunch but cleverly left the entrance doors open.
They knew that if I checked the security open and close log for the weekend, the museum still would appear open for visitors. They left the museum wide-open, unattended for another hour and a half when they returned from lunch. While they were out, several guests came in, viewed the exhibits, let their kids trash the children’s discovery room, rummaged through the front desk, took some bills out of the donation box, and left.
We were very fortunate those guests didn’t take any art or artifacts or go upstairs into the office area. Of course, after seeing all that, I called Martha at home, told her what I had seen, and fired her. What really made me mad was that I liked Martha, and until that day, I thought she was a solid, responsible employee.