Legacy

This is the story of how Slick John, Honest Thief, became Rich John, Honest Thief.  Last name withheld for obvious reasons.  Honest because he never lied about his stealing. Wow! What a guy.

Anyway, John worked for a major import distributor warehouse.  Everything from A to Z was processed through there on its way to retail outlets.  Included in the A to Z were large quantities of assorted fine jewelry, gold and diamonds and such.

It was that stuff which required that all employees pass by a guarded gate on their way to the parking lots.  They would always be searched as a matter of policy, nothing personal, just policy.  The emphasis was on finding stolen jewelry.  It was small and concealable, and highly tempting.

Was there anything that could be carried out that would not upset the guards or cause them suspicion?  Yes there was.  The distribution center was very liberal about allowing employees to take home salvageable trash.  It was identifiable by an official supervisory tagging, and the obvious sometimes exterior damage to an item.

This was a popular perk as some of it could be made usable, even if it was no longer salable. Now this is how Slick John started his thievery.  He would for example crack the lens on a very expensive camera, show it to the supervisor who would then tag it as trash/salvage.  He would then waltz by the guards who would give a quick glance, pat him down for jewels and flag him on.

Then a few weeks later, John would manage to find another expensive camera just like the first on and break a knob and get the supervisor to flag it as trash/salvage.  I think you get the picture; John now had between the two expensive cameras one good intact one, brand new.  Slick indeed. Over the next three years John would accrue about a dozen cameras.  It didn’t stop there. In between cameras there were other things, like Lap Top Computers, high end blenders, and on and on one big assortment.

The biggest size wise and quantity wise theft was when he caved in the front of an air conditioner to big to carry, so he conveniently found a wheel barrow with a cracked handle.  He took them out together.  Bought a handle at the hardware store and fixed the wheelbarrow.  Then in a few weeks caved in the back of another same kind air conditioner. This time the front panel was flagged so that’s all he carried out as that was all he needed.  Rest of it went to trash bin.

Now John all while doing this phony salvage bit was also busy stealing watches by wearing it out on his wrist. Never came to work with a watch, but always left with one. Each day that is. No one give a second thought to a watch on a wrist. Or a new wallet in ones hip pocket.

They did however while searching an employee also meticulously search his lunch box. Even look inside the thermos bottle and if there was still something in it would empty it on the ground to be sure there were no submerged gold rings for example.

Slick John always had a little left in his thermos and they would always empty it out.  Never for once realizing Slick John always brought his lunch in a brown bag. John also accumulated a lot of high end lunch boxes.

So it went, once in a while since Slick John got to be known by the guards as King of Salvage, hard working and enterprising so they thought, trying to fix up junk for a few garage sale dollars probably.

The relationship between Slick John and the guards was so good they would joke with him and every once in awhile, they would say what are you stealing today John?  He would always give an absolutely honest answer, like anything and everything I can.  That always got the customary laugh and pat on the back, with a comment of keep up the good work.  John would always reply that he intended to.

Now you realize the most in obvious things in the world are the obvious.  John counted on that.

After amassing a basement and garage full of contraband John started disposing of the stuff on E-Bay.  That took several months of effort and much labor in shipping the stuff.  John being an honest thief always gave the customer what they paid for.

Slick John was making quite a pile. He decided to invest it in some speculative stocks.  By some act of fate they did well and went sky high.  John sold them and was now a multi millionaire.

Enter Rich John, who took that wealth and bought a controlling interest in the distribution company he’d been working for right up until the time he bought in.  He had his office moved to a high platform level in the main shipping area so he could eyeball much.

He also changed some policies. One no more salvage perks,that stuff would be auctioned off per sealed bids to legitimate salvagers.  Also, all wallets and watches would be checked at the guard shack on the way in and retrieved on the way out.  Not to leave a stone unturned, no lunch boxes allowed, only paper bags.

Not to add insult to injury, but the guards got to talking among themselves and pretty well figured things out. But what could they say, that guy John was now the Boss.

Unfortunately, this is but one example of how some rise to riches. Many methods and schemes our used.  The old saying that each family of means had a Horse Thief or Bootlegger in the family tree is not nearly as funny as it sounds.