Night Shift: Lost Phone

So last night at work, it was a party night (as finals run Monday-Wednesday). This meant that I had drunk student after drunk student coming in, especially because it was the "after finals" drinking that I'm sure all of the college grads understand.

Anyway, I still have to enforce the security rules, which means no non-students after midnight up in the rooms. Even the drunks know this, and they try to get crafty with me. And sometimes, they succeed!

I had a girl who I could tell was eying a way to sneak past me. Normally I am pretty good at stopping this, but... they can sometimes win. I had a large group of students come in all at once (most likely all from the same train). Some of them can walk right in, as they all live their and it is quick. Those with guests have to wait in a line, and I sign them in. So I'm signing in some people and watching to make sure the residents are all actually supposed to pass me. The girl who got by me first was waiting in the 'check in' line, but then hopped to the other line and piggybacked through the door. At least I believe this is what happened, as I didn't see her. She was just "gone."

What wasn't gone was her blackberry. Once I had the crowd taken care of, and I noticed she never checked in, I looked back at where she was in the line, and there it was sitting on my desk. In her drunken planning of her sweet 'slip by the guard' she set her phone down. I picked it up, and stuck inside the phone holder was her drivers license. Awesome.

I ran her name through the computer to see if she had ever been in the building before, cause if she had and only visited one person, I could look that up and guess where she was. Unfortunately, she was a pretty popular girl and had visited many different people. So I had no way to predict who she was with.

Then the phone started ringing. I didn't answer. It rang again. From my experience, this is the friend she is with calling it to try and find it, now that she realizes that it's gone. It only come up as a first name, and not a name on her "previously visited" list, so it doesn't help me find where she is. I could just answer it, and say it's at the desk, but that would somewhat let her off the hook. She wouldn't be worried if I did that. Remember this girl snuck by me, which can get me fired. So I'm going to not answer and let her sweat a while.

It rings and rings, and after a while, two girls come down to my desk. I know that these are not the girls, because the girl who's ID I have is of eastern complexion with dark hair, while these girls are white blonds.

"Did you find a phone?" Blond Girl 1 asks.

"Yes, I did," I respond.

"Is it a Blackberry?" she asks.

"Yes, it is," I respond again. I am trying to keep a straight face and as monotone, matter of fact voice as possible.

"Has it been ringing off the hook?" she asks. "And is it ringing now?" she says as she hold up her phone making a call.

"Yes, and yes," I respond.

"Great!" says Blond Girl 2. "That's mine!"

"No, actually it's not," I reply. "It's this girls..." I say holding her ID. Their faces go south.

"OK, yeah, shes my friend, and shes upstairs in my room crying her eyes out cause she thinks her phone is lost. Can we please have it to give to her?" Blond Girl 2 asks.

"No," I respond. "But if you can send her down, I can give her her phone." They look at each other, knowing this isn't a good idea. Their friend isn't allowed in the building, so sending her down to the desk will get her caught. Plus the friend is drunk and now crying.

"Please, I give you my word we'll give it to her, shes really upset," Blond Girl 1 begs.

"No, but I'll hold it here at the desk. And give it to her with her ID," I said, crushing their hopes. They sulked back upstairs. About fifteen minutes went by, and I began to think that they had called my bluff. See, knowing that the phone is at the desk, and knowing that we have the ID of the owner, that phone isn't going anywhere. It's safe. The girl could easily stay all night, and get it on the way out in the morning. But I'm betting that the drunk girl won't think of that option.

After about twenty minutes, two girls come down. Blond Girl 1, and Phone Girl.

"Hi," says phone girl. "You have my phone and ID?"

"Yes I do," I respond, handing her the phone.

"Thank you so much sweety!" she says with a smile.

"Do you want to check in now?" I ask. Their smiles quickly fade.

"Um, yes I do," she responds.

"I'll need your overnight pass please," I ask. Her face is totally blank, that look of drunken "oh shit" when you realize you didn't completely think the plan through.

"I don't have one," she quietly says.

"Ah. Then I can't let you in. Here's your ID back," I said has I handed her back the ID.

"But, um, I don't have anywhere to go," she said.

"Yeah, shes stuck here!" Blond Girl 1 chimed in.

"Sorry," I responded.

Then I made her leave. Out into the rain at 3 a.m. Don't F with me kids. I'm not risking my job for you after you break the rules and get caught. You have to be nice and beg from the start...

Night Shift: Windy City

So tonight, Chicago is suffering from strong winds, including gusts up to 50 MPH. This makes walking around very fun...

I am in a building tonight with doors on both the east and west sides of the lobby. Due to the winds, whenever a student opens the doors on the east side, they stay blown open and never close. Besides thwarting our security scan system (why scan to unlock a wide open door) this also causes a pressure situation in the lobby which makes it very difficult to open the west doors. So even when the kids scan and unlock those doors, they pull and pull and remain trapped outside. I am then accused of "locking" them outside, to which I can only suggest a better gym workout plan.

The most recent side effect of the wind is that with the doors constantly being open, the lobby has gotten very cold (it is currently 21 degrees with a wind chill of 4). To solve this, I was given a space heater which quickly tripped the circuit breakers and shut off my computer security workstation. So things are going well...

Night Shift: Can't Stay Here

My excitement for the night just ended with two kids being sent out into the rain. Tonight I'm in a building with a sweet lounge for students to hang out in. When I got back from my lunch break, there were a bunch of students hanging out and playing videogames. After a while, they all packed it in, turned off the lights, and left. I sat here at the desk looking at Google Reader for at least an hour and a half, when all of a sudden I heard a loud snort from the dark room. I went to investigate, and there were two kids crashing on the couches in there. I called it in, and officers came over to check on the kids (often these kids might be passed out drunk, etc.) These guys went and explained that they were up visiting some friends, but not allowed to stay with them. "Well you can't stay here!" they were told.

After checking their IDs, and allowing them to make some phone calls to try and wake a friend (to no avail) they were escorted out of the building. I believe they are now hanging out under the train tracks up the road... It's raining pretty hard.

For a second, I felt bad, but then I thought "What idiots come to Chicago with no plan on where they might stay? Welcome to the real world..."

Night Shift: She Caused AIDS

I have started working the night shift in Chicago. It seems to alternate between crazy and totally boring... I basically sit at a desk and deal with college students.

I thought it could lead to a fun new series on this blog, so I'll be calling it Night Shift. It's frequency will depend on the entertainment value of the people I am watching, so if nothing is posted for a while, blame college students in Chicago for not drinking enough...

That said, this was something I overheard the other night from a girl talking to friends about her roommate: "I hate (roommate's name). She caused AIDS. She caused AIDS, and cancer, and global warming..."