One By One, Things Started Disappearing

It is not uncommon to have our desks decorated with photos, magnets, or even little figures to make it more lively and homey while we work. I like to put up photos of places I’ve been and magnets that I’ve collected. Every time I travel somewhere, one of the things I like to buy is a magnet from each destination to remember my trip. Although these are not fancy magnets, each one is very meaningful!

It was on a Friday when someone first told me that they have some figures missing on their desk. Figures going missing? Maybe someone hid them, I thought. I started hearing other people missing things. Someone lost a $5 bill that was in a jar on their desk, magnets have gone missing, and things seemed to have moved from the night before. There must really be a thief!

Even though I haven’t noticed anything missing from my desk at the time, I reported the situation and the investigation began. Is there a thief or are things just disappearing? Everyone was very curious. The person who lost a $5 bill decided to do a test. He left out a $20 bill and checked his jar the next day. It was gone.

More people reported magnets missing. I looked around my desk again. Something…looks…off…my magnet is missing! I stared at the empty spot on my desk in disbelief. How could I let that happen??? I had known people were losing magnets, and I did not hide my own to be safe. What a terrible mistake I had made.

I was so sad. I had gotten the magnet from Seattle when I was at the Space Needle. The magnet had a thermometer on it too. I was very glad that the two magnets above it were still there – I would have been even more sad if those were stolen since I got those all the way from Malaysia! I immediately reported my missing magnet.

The thief was caught not long after. It was the janitor! What is he doing with all of our magnets??? I wish he would return all the things he took from us, but unfortunately, we weren’t able to get them back. The building made sure he was not on our floor again and replaced him with someone else.

I took down everything at my desk – my photos, my magnets, other decorations – in case there is someone else who comes to steal my things. I am not going to let anyone else steal my things again!