| How To Find Who Gave You The
Old Switcheroo - Surveillance Article
Ernie hated days like this.
Earlier, a biker guy came in for a lighter. When Ernie grabbed the
right one from the display next to the cash register, his entire
inventory spilled all over the floor. Even after the customer helped
Ernie clean up most of the mess, there were still lighters
everywhere for the rest of the afternoon.
Then, this little college girl came in to break a hundred by buying
a pack of cigarettes. She kept changing her mind about which brand
she wanted from the racks behind the counter. Ernie had to spin
around so often he felt dizzy. He wondered if she even smoked, or if
she was getting the pack for somebody else.
Finally, just a few minutes before closing, a couple of punk rock
kids came into the store and started hassling Ernie. He tolerated
them because he was a little wild in his day, too. They knocked over
a few displays before finally buying some cans of soda.
With the doors locked, Ernie counted the day's receipts in the back
office. A puzzled look crossed his face as he realized that ninety
dollars was missing from the till. He knew he couldn't have made
such a glaring mistake, so he decided to check his eye in the sky.
Ernie's nephew had installed it a few months ago. It's a security
camera shaped like a smoke detector, that looks straight down on
the sales counter. Ernie liked it because customers didn't have to
feel as if they had a camera trained on them the whole time. And all
his nephew had to do was plug it in to an outlet hidden in the drop
ceiling. Its wireless transmitter sent a clear signal to Ernie's
video recorder in the back.
He scanned through the tape until he saw the biker guy. Ernie
watched the man help him pick up all those lighters, and the cash
register drawer slowly drifted open. He must not have shut it all
the way! But it didn't matter. Nobody had reached around to grab any
cash.
Ernie scanned some more, and found the punk rockers. They were
troublemakers, and it looked as if they were messing with the
charity jar. Not only did they not steal anything, the one with the
safety pin in his eyebrow actually stuck a dollar in the jar when he
thought nobody was looking.
On the verge of giving up and accepting his huge mistake, something
caught Ernie's eye. It was the cigarette girl. Ernie watched her lay
a hundred dollar bill on the counter, and remembered how she begged
him to take it. The camera had caught her switching the
hundred-dollar bill on the counter for a ten-dollar bill while
Ernie's back was turned. With its high resolution, the camera made
it clear that the girl had conned Ernie.
He picked up the phone to call his friend at the police department.
Even if they couldn't track her down, her picture would wind up on
watch lists all over the state.
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