That Time I Worked With a Laptop Thief

The story revolves around the author's experience as an interim IT manager at a company that had been facing issues with a contractor, referred to as Jim. Over the course of a year, Jim had been stealing laptops from the company and reselling them for profit. The author was working as a DevOps Engineer and, feeling burnt out, discussed with their boss about taking on a different role to help reset the company.

The author volunteered to be the interim IT manager and was tasked with fixing the department's problems. Upon taking over, they discovered that the IT closet was in disarray, and Jim was rarely available during working hours. The closet contained fewer laptops than expected, with six machines unaccounted for. The author started a thread in the IT Slack channel, requesting the team to share any information they had regarding the missing laptops. Jim was the only person left in the IT department, and he was not helpful or available when needed.

The author eventually hired a new IT manager and a support specialist, and during their first week, the author noticed something suspicious about the newly ordered MacBooks. There were six machines unaccounted for, and the inventory showed an odd number of laptops. The author started a thread in the IT Slack channel to inquire about the missing laptops, but Jim was elusive and sent the author five Apple repair case IDs.

Upon further investigation, the author discovered that Jim had created these repair requests under his personal Apple account, which prevented them from gathering more information. Two new MacBooks arrived at the office, and Jim claimed to have replaced two of the laptops. However, the author remained skeptical, and the author consulted Apple about the origin of the laptops. It turned out that the laptops were not purchased by the company, but rather associated with Jim himself.

The FedEx shipping labels revealed that the replacement laptops were sent directly to Jim's residence, rather than the company. The author also inquired about the shipping process and was informed that Apple does not ship repairs from their stores, but from their repair centers in a neighboring state. The author attempted to maintain a civil and non-accusatory stance while seeking answers, but Jim eventually resorted to victim-blaming. Ultimately, Jim was given 24 hours to explain the missing laptops before being let go.