My workday yesterday was consumed by an unsolved mystery.
Several weeks ago, we ordered a couple of hard-to-find DVDs for the library, at the request of one of the administrators. They were not cheap, and we grew increasingly concerned when they didn't arrive in the mail. My co-worker looked into it and found that they'd not only been shipped from the USA but supposedly delivered on Oct. 22, and sure enough, one of our security guards had signed for them.
We looked into it more and found CCTV images of the package in our loading bay, and then in the process of being delivered inside the school by one of our staff members.
So where the heck did this box go? Normally, library deliveries come to my desk, but I was shelf-reading that day and wasn't sitting there. My boss and co-worker were also in, but neither of them remembers seeing it arrive. It has completely vanished.
I went down to the loading bay yesterday morning -- before we were certain the box had made it into the school itself -- and looked everywhere I could think of. I got down on my knees and peered beneath pallets and cleaned up randomly scattered catalogs and newspapers to make sure our package wasn't somehow among them. We then looked everywhere in the library we could think of. Nothing.
I did, however, find...
...this bag of baked pita chips in the depths of my desk, behind my bottom drawer. I never eat chips, so it seemed kind of weird. And then I looked at the expiration date.
They expired in January 2013 -- or perhaps October, if the date is written American style, which seems unlikely. In any case, they're really old. They've been there since before I took this job in autumn 2013! They were my predecessor's chips!
No, I did not eat them. I'm not that adventurous. They're now on their way to the landfill or the incinerator or wherever our rubbish goes.
Meanwhile, our DVDs are still lost. We've put an announcement in our internal newsletter asking people to keep an eye out for them, in case they were simply delivered to the wrong office -- but it seems weird in that case that someone wouldn't have discovered them by now.
It's just amazingly bad luck that of all the packages to go missing, this is the one that did. Most of our deliveries are £5 paperback books. Why did it have to be the £200 DVDs that disappeared?
(Top photo: Outside the Swiss Cottage tube station on a recent rainy evening.)
46 comments:
Ew, nearly 9-year-old chips. I know people who would have opened that bag and eaten them. That’s very sad and disturbing about those DVDs. I hope they turn up.
You then begin to suspect it's been pinched, and wonder who, which is insidious.
Good luck, you may have a thief unless someone trashed it without realizing what it was...I doubt even the birds would eat those crisps.
If I was more cynical I would say that £200 packages are more likely to go missing than £5 ones - but it's more likely to be 'sod's law'. What can happen will happen... like when the PC crashes and I lose files, it always seems to be the ones that take the most work to recreate...
I'm hoping it will still show up.
I blame Colonel Mustard though I wouldn't put it past Professor Plum. Sherlock Holmes might have investigated the security guard's murky past or he might have been suspicious of this very blogpost - in case it was just a smokescreen created to put pursuers off the true perpetrator of this cunning heist!
I think someone, whoever has the DVDs, out the chips out to throw everyone off the scent.
But that's just me.
What were the DVDs about? Is some unlucky thief morosely watching The History of Mathematics from his moth-eaten armchair?
Ooo - a mystery! I fully expect that sometime next week you'll come back & tell us, "well it was a funny story..." Or they'll never be found. Weird!
I hope you find your missing DVD's. It's amazing that the chips were still there and not found by some adventurous mice. You have a super day, hugs, Edna B.
How frustrating! I do hope they turn up soon.
I love that rainy photo. The city is looking very pretty.
Glad you didn't eat those chips.
Since you can't find the DVDs, can you request a substitute set be sent to the school ... For Free?
Something went amiss with the delivery and the company should be willing to replace the lost items!
Worth checking into!
That is an interesting mystery. Makes me wonder what's on those DVDs that they were so expensive. I hope they turn up.
Interesting bag of very old chips.
Those chips remind me of the old expiration dates I found when I cleaned out my spice cabinet! Maybe not THAT old tho! :)
Hope you find your package - I am guessing they are sitting in a classroom somewhere. Maybe the subject of the DVDs will tell you which classroom? Good luck!
Well those are two issues at very opposite ends. Now I hope that your DVD's aren't found in someone's desk 8 years from now!
The key words might be "hard to find" DVDs. Could someone have recognized their value and swiped them? I hate that my mind goes to such places!
WOW , were the DVD's about how to turn plastic into gold? Pretty pricey for anything less!
There have been several deliveries to my house that have gone missing, never to be located. Hope you find the DVDs! What does the security guard say about what s/he did with the package?
My suspicious mind immediately went to someone stole them. Hopefully, I am wrong. Here's hoping they turn up. Please do tell us what was on them, it's odd that there is physical media.
The fact the DVDs arrived and were signed for deepens the mystery. You have to wonder if they were left at your desk, only to be picked up (I hate to say stolen) by someone from there.
Curiosity would have had me opening the bag to see if there was still any crispness to them. (testing by hand, not mouth!)
You could have fed those 8 year old chips to the birds.
The Strange Case of the Missing DVD Box: Will it be solved by Steve Reed, Library Detective?
Love,
Janie
Doubtful! I'm trying, though!
I would have eaten them if they were one or two years old, but nine is excessive even for me!
I just can't imagine anyone would want to pinch these.
Honestly, I think that's probably what happened. I think we threw them away accidentally.
Yeah, I agree, it's sod's law!
Fingers crossed!
Curses! You saw through my diversion!
They could have used fresher bait!
Basically, yes! They're instructional videos of some sort. I don't even know what the subject is, exactly.
I'm tending toward the latter possibility, unfortunately. I honestly think we mistakenly threw them away somehow.
Yeah, it's true! I've heard stories about mice in the school, though I've never seen any myself.
The rain makes things visually interesting, at least for photos, but it sure is physically uncomfortable!
I think the sender can probably see that the package was delivered and signed for -- so unfortunately we can't blame the postal service. :(
I know, I'm curious too!
I hope they're sitting somewhere. We haven't been able to talk to the guy who delivers packages within the school because he hasn't been at work lately, so when he gets back that may shed some light on things.
It's entirely possible!
I don't think they're the kind of thing someone would steal. More likely they were misdelivered or accidentally thrown away. (Yikes)
Ha! I doubt they were that practical!
We've been unable to talk to the delivery guy because he's been out. Hopefully next week we'll get with him and clear things up, although he delivers dozens of boxes a week throughout the school so I'm not sure he'll remember this particular package.
Well, when a teacher wants a certain movie, sometimes DVD is the only way to get it. Not everything is available via streaming -- especially instructional stuff.
My hunch is they were left on my desk and somehow they got taken out with the trash. I'm not sure how this might have happened, but that's my guess.
Eeeew! They're so old I'm not sure even the birds would have wanted them.
You have video of the staff member carrying it into the building. Have you asked that person where they put the box?
Sounds very suspicious to me...
Post a Comment