The Kleptomaniac

The tempers were running high! Everyone was speaking animatedly, as the visibly agitated crowd in the office gathered around the table of Neha grew! She was sobbing, and looking blankly towards the crowd.

‘I had just left my mobile phone a few minutes ago on my table, and now I have been searching for almost half an hour ‘she blabbered in between sobs. ‘Who could have taken it’? She said.

The team of coworkers searched vainly for another half an hour with no sign of the mobile phone.

‘It is sad, these things are happening in the office’ lamented Arvind. ‘This is the third time this has happened in last two months’ he remarked.  

The office was cleared and despite the combing operation by team from HR and security, no clues could be found. Neha lodged an internal complaint and after about an hour, everyone was back on their seat.

Vikram was the Head of Facilities and was under fire over the spate of the robberies in the office and had evaded the police interference on the two earlier occasions but this time it appeared that the situation had gone out of hands. The internal security had been beefed up and the vigilance mounted to look for the offender.

Harsh Bhargava was the Head of HR and had just called Vikram to his cabin.

‘Damn it! What the hell is happening? He thundered as he stared at Vikram’.

‘Sir, just give me a day, I will try to have some answers by tomorrow morning’, he muttered meekly knowing that the management meant serious business and he had a tough assignment at hand.

‘Tomorrow morning, at 9 AM, come and brief me! I want answers’ Harsh raised his voice and shooed away Vikram.

Back in his room, Vikram tried to put his thoughts together and then walked up to Ganga Singh the Security Chief.  They both discussed for half an hour and then Ganga Singh, suggested that they review the video footage of two months. Next three hours they pored over the videos and could just see the regular office staff working, leaving for coffee, lunch, gossip but nothing unusual. It was almost 7 PM and they were still clueless when suddenly, Ganga Singh told Vikram to observe what was on one of the security monitor in the Control room.  They both held their breath and could not believe what they were seeing. In next fifteen minutes they had their answer.  Once more, they pored over the video footage after what they had seen, this time paying much more attention to details especially on the recordings of the two earlier days when the mobiles were stolen. They prepared the report and sent to Harsh in a crisp mail assuring of sharing details next morning.

Next morning, the office started as usual except at 11 AM there was a call for Shikha who worked as a Secretary to one of the Senior Manager in the organization. She was around 25 years old, always smartly attired and a very smooth talker. She was a favorite amongst colleagues for her jovial nature.

As she entered the cabin of her boss she was asked to sit and handed over a letter.  She opened the envelope and shook all over as she read that her services were terminated with immediate effect.  Her hands trembled, as her feet turned leaden.  She did not have the courage to lift her head as the world around her collapsed. The video footage had shown her putting the stolen mobile in her purse as she removed it from her s inner shirt while she was coming out of the lift all alone. She groggily walked out of the office and remembered her younger years when she had shoplifted several times and had never been caught! The kleptomaniac had finally met her Waterloo!  

PS : Image Kind courtesy Google

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