Saturday, December 01, 2012

Not-So-Lethal Weapon

Yesterday, I was sitting in my office, near the front doors, but far away from my teams.  One of the other managers in the space, the one who has the job I used to do, pokes his head in my open sliding door.  He looked incredibly nervous, his voice was a little shaky, and he said, "You might want to come with us.  We're heading up stairs.  There's a security...incident."  I looked at him, and he clarified, "Someone has a gun."

I grabbed my badge, locked my computer (who's a good corporate citizen with no common sense) and trailed along as everyone in our space, one of the few that has walls around a defined area, filed upstairs to the cafeteria.  After a minute, the manager who gave me the warning took a head count, and my old lead and I went downstairs to herd folks away from our area where the weapon was rumored to be.  I was watching the area immediately next door to the back and a little further into the space where one of my teams sits, parking myself so I could see if someone was coming out of space, which only has two doors.  You could see into the area, and there were two people standing around looking confused.  One of them the individual rumored to have the gun, which is off limits at our workplace.  There are signs as you drive in stating they're not allowed on the campus.  The other, a contractor who had wandered back into the area without looking up (usual for him - he's a great worker, but he's usually lost in thought), so not realizing that he was the only other individual in the space.

We'd seen a cop whipping through the back lot as we came down the stairs, courtesy of my old boss, who had seen the gun which the individual had "forgotten to leave at home" (this is all rumor as I know it).  Though I didn't see them, cops and SWAT, someone put the count at no less than 15, parked themselves at all the doors to the company.  A couple plain clothes individuals came in to talk to the person in question, then eventually let him go (legal conceal and carry permit?), though not to continue working, but to go home.  I get the impression this was very close to the end of a term at work for the individual, and the individual was known to be abrasive, so that may have been a huge part of why there was such a hurry to get someone on site who could make sure nothing was amiss.

The team rescheduled their bowling outing for the day to somewhere unknown, and hopefully everyone got past the craziness.  Although rumor from my uncle-in-law, just the other side of the elevator, had it that my old boss had been "threatened with a gun".  Not the case.  He just got to see it up close and personal at work.  Better.  But obviously not what you want on a Friday with an abrasive employee on his last day at a workplace where guns aren't allowed.

Exciting Friday!  I'm charging the whole event to Department Meeting despite Meeting Free Fridays.

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