A few months after the embarrassment of Sandra meeting Earl, our office secretary, Linda, confided in me that she was at the Bursar’s Office the day before, and learned that no money had ever been deposited from our department.

Media Services sold blank VHS tapes–this was back in the ’80’s–to Telecommunications students for their projects.  It was strictly cash.  (I think it was $6 a tape.)  Linda would handle the transactions.  At the end of the day, she would give the paperwork and the cash to Earl.  Supposedly, he would then deposit the money with the Bursar.

Linda was concerned that she would be accused of stealing the money, and asked me what to do.  My advice was to make sure she kept separate documentation of every transaction going forward.  I would think about what else to do.

Around that same time was an article in Psychology Today on whistle-blowers.  The gist of the article was that whistle-blowers that came forward often suffered bad consequences compared to whistle-blowers who remained anonymous. Hmmm…

Over the course of the next week or so, I pondered what the right thing to do would be. I was certain that if the discrepancy was discovered, Earl would place the blame on Linda. I was also certain that Earl would not look kindly on a whistle-blower.  Therefore, the plan became to send an anonymous letter through campus mail to the Campus Police.

It took two or three weeks, plus a second anonymous letter with more details, before anything visible happened.  What appeared to be a fairly easy crime to prove, took nine months.  Not days.  Not weeks.  Months.

During that time, Earl, who became aware of the investigation, harassed all of us in the department.  He referred to the Campus Police as “The Gestapo”.  He fired all of my student workers because he suspected they were informing on him to the Gestapo.  They were the best bunch of student workers I ever had.  The next day I went to Student Employment to explain the situation and plead with them to find jobs for all of them.  (Which they did.)