David, a journeyman industrial mechanic and electrician, was a well-known figure at a colossal manufacturing plant in the Midwest. His years of service and expertise made him the most senior crew member who fixed the equipment to manufacture durable consumer goods. His influence and respect extended to the private guard force that operated like a mini-police department in and around the giant facility.
David’s popularity was not just a result of his skills but also his propensity to help others. He was always ready to contribute and get others to donate to every charitable campaign that came along. His friendship was a valuable asset, especially if you needed something fixed. Many plant workers would bring David electrical or mechanical items that needed mending, and David usually figured out a way to get the gadgets working again.
In the early summer of 1974, David’s crew was assigned to move a tool and die shop in the factory from the north end to the south end of the building. New equipment was brought in as part of the move, and some older equipment was sent to scrap. David noticed a lovely eight-foot lathe that had a scrap tag on it. This meant the machine was to be cut into two-foot lengths and thrown into an open railroad car for recycling. David couldn’t stand the thought of such a sweet lathe going to waste, and one evening, when no one was around, he picked up the lathe with a forklift and stashed it in a locked storage space.
David kept the lathe squirreled away for a couple of months until the plant was scheduled to be closed for production for a week. Most of the workers in the plant, except for the maintenance workers like David, were on vacation, so things were really quiet. David told one of his friends on the guard force of his plan to load the lathe into his van in the parking lot at 3:00 a.m., which was lunchtime. The guard made sure that no other guards were assigned to the loading dock then and assured David it would be safe to “relocate” the lathe at that time.
David swiftly moved the lathe out to his van with a forklift, and he had just finished loading it when another guard, arriving late due to a sick child, happened upon David, his van, and the lathe. The guard wrote up the incident and took the lathe to the guard’s evidence room. David returned to work feeling sick to his stomach and waited for his disciplinary hearing and likely dismissal. Usually, a hearing for a serious matter like this would come up in two or three days, but since the plant was on shut-down, it was about three weeks before HR delivered a notice to David ordering him to appear for a hearing.
The day the hearing was supposed to occur, one of the guard captains came by David’s shop. The captain told David that he had gotten off lucky this time. The lathe had disappeared from the evidence room, and the company decided to cancel the hearing. The captain said to David with a smile, “The next time you want to put something in your van, come to me and let me take care of it. The next time you get caught, I might be unable to make it disappear like I did this time.” About a month later, the captain, who had been keeping the lathe in his garage, brought the lathe over to David’s house and helped him carry it into David’s basement.
