The Boy and the Bookstore
The Heist
Sam was walking down the isle of a Wal-Mart store in a determined pace. He was dressed in khaki pants and a white collared polo shirt. Sam was also wearing a pair of big rimmed fake glasses and had shaved his beard to just a mustache. Sam was also wearing a blonde wig to hide his brown hair. It was around seven o’clock at night. Sam maintained a direct path. He had scouted the store for about a month and his plan was finally in affect. He walked straight back through the closed swinging doors to the back of the store where products were being stored. There was also a room for the workers to have their lunch and dinner breaks. In between the lunch room and all the shelves of product was a big black room. It appeared to have no door but as Sam had found out this was actually the security room and knew there was always a man inside of this box keeping surveillance.
The reason for his outfit was simple. The store was putting on a promotion for part of the store. They were told to dress in khaki pants and a white polo tee shirt. The promotion that was going on was for a new type of camera and the workers were going to be in the store from Friday to Sunday in a variety of hours. They were using volunteers and hired help to show off pictures of this new camera. The majority of the staff at Wal-Mart understood to just leave these workers alone and let them do their promotion. Sam had done his homework. These cameras were fully wireless and easily uploaded to the internet. They only needed two batteries that would last for months because there was a form of solar power to the camera that relied on heat. As long as the temperature of the camera stayed above forty degree it could power itself. The camera also came with the accessories to adjust for different types of zoom lenses. The camera also had double the amount of pixels as the best quality on the market for digital cameras. In essence it was the new game console on the market. Pre-teens, teenagers, adults, film students, and even professional photographers wanted this camera and all for different reasons. The camera somehow fit the mold and the company knew it. They were doing an initial release of the camera and only releasing a limited amount of the cameras. They wrote in the tech magazines that it was a trial base to see if there were any flaws and to see how they sold in the markets. Any business student knew it was just a way to control supply and demand and be able to put a hefty price tag on the product. Luckily for Sam this was the perfect type of score he could handle. All he had to do was take out one problem.
Sam knocked on the door of this big black studio looking office. It must have been sound proof Sam decided because the man inside did not answer. Sam had also researched the security staff. The man on shift tonight was a man named William Branton. He was in his mid-thirties, an average looking man with short trimmed blonde hair and a clean shaven face. On paper he appeared to take his work serious and be the worst guy to try and con, but if you looked deeper he had a pregnant wife who was expecting to deliver at any moment. Sam continued to bang on the door a little harder while continuing to look around for any workers getting suspicious. William finally answered the door and looked at Sam.
“Are you William?” Sam said trying to make his voice a little deeper.
“Yes. What do you want?”
“Oh my God dude. I’m supposed to tell you that your wife’s water broke. She’s in the hospital about to have your kid.”
“What! Why didn’t she call me? I can’t believe this. Our first kid and she didn’t call me.”
“Well I bet that big black box is horrible for cell phone reception. Or maybe she just panicked since it’s your first kid and didn’t realize no one contacted you.”
“Yeah I bet that’s what happened. How’d you find out?”
“I was up at the customer service desk and they received a call. I told them I could run back and relay the message. I’m on my way out anyways.”
“I wonder why they didn’t just radio me.” Sam had thought of this as a possibility as well and quickly changed the subject.
“Well aren’t you going to go man? It’s your first kid!” Sam said sounding excited.
“I can’t leave my post for another three hours when Dave comes in though. What do I do?”
“I’ll call Dave and have him come in. I just spoke to him about something for tomorrow so I know he’s not busy. I’ll cover for you while he’s on his way.”
“You sure you know what you’re doing? Are you really qualified?” William asked. Sam was hoping that he’d be too emotional to think about this.
“Of course man. I do security over at the mall. I’m sure it’s not anything I can’t handle. It’s not like anyone really steals from Wal-Mart anyways.”
“Yeah I know what you mean. It’s a pretty boring job.” William paused “Well thanks. I hope nothing happens before I get there.” He said picking up his jacket from his chair and strolling out through the back door.
Sam waited for the door to close before he walked into the security box and shut the door. He adjusted one of the cameras away from the back door and then called someone on his cell phone. “It’s clear.” Is all he said. A white van backed it’s way up into one of the loading spaces right next to the door where William had just left. Sam walked back out of the box and propped open the door. The new cameras were on a lower crate in the back still. They were on the main floor as they were to be released on the coming Tuesday. It was a Sunday evening. Two men came inside the door dressed up in delivery uniforms looking like a UPS worker with their own facial disguises. One of them wheeled over a trolley that lifted the crate full of cameras and quickly backed it to the loading dock area right next to the door. The crate was too big to fit through the door and therefore all the camera’s had to be moved by hand. The cameras were in small boxes already and the two men had brought in moving boxes that could fit forty or so of the cameras in each box. There were 1,000 cameras in total. The boxes were small enough that the men could grab several at a time. While the two men loaded the cameras into boxes and then the boxes into the back of the van Sam made sure to keep the surveillance cameras pointed away from the loading dock area and monitored to make sure there wasn’t any staff around. The only parts he had to fix was the trolley moving the crate and the van leaving the back parking lot area. Both of these things had to be done after everything was all said and done. It was just a matter of deleting the exact files from the security server. It was no problem for Sam.
After the guys were done loading up the truck they shut the back door and left. Sam quickly hacked into the server and found the files he needed to delete and deleted them. Afterwards he shut the security room up and walked to the front of the store and left. He thought about telling one of the managers to call in Dave but he knew William would be back soon enough after he went to the hospital and realized that his wife hadn’t actually gone into labor yet and was still at their house. The next step for Sam was to add the product to all the accounts he had already set up on different merchandise websites like eBay and Amazon. The product was about to be sold for $400 in stores. Sam decided to sell them online for $350. After all the cameras were to be sold and Sam had paid off the truck he rented and the two guys who had helped him he was going to earn himself around $340,000. He wondered if the two guys ever wondered if they should have asked for more than four grand apiece. Sam had paid for the truck and of course each website earns a small wage of the purchase and shipping of the cameras was also a fee Sam had to deal with. In the long run Sam had devised the plan, done the research, made sure they got out clean, and handled all the purchases. He felt it was more than fair for two of his colleagues to be paid four grand a piece to simply load and unload boxes of cameras. All and all everyone seemed happy with their heist. The two guys made their money before any camera was ever sold and made sure to tell their buddy Marcus to keep them in mind for his next con.
Sam waited until Wednesday before releasing all the cameras for sale. He sold two hundred in the first day and almost half of them in the first week. By the end of the month he barely had any left and decided he was going to keep one for himself and maybe a few more he’d send out to his brother, Charlie, and a few of his colleagues as a Christmas present. He knew Charlie would be back from Christmas break in a few weeks and he wouldn’t even think about it being stolen.
The reason for his outfit was simple. The store was putting on a promotion for part of the store. They were told to dress in khaki pants and a white polo tee shirt. The promotion that was going on was for a new type of camera and the workers were going to be in the store from Friday to Sunday in a variety of hours. They were using volunteers and hired help to show off pictures of this new camera. The majority of the staff at Wal-Mart understood to just leave these workers alone and let them do their promotion. Sam had done his homework. These cameras were fully wireless and easily uploaded to the internet. They only needed two batteries that would last for months because there was a form of solar power to the camera that relied on heat. As long as the temperature of the camera stayed above forty degree it could power itself. The camera also came with the accessories to adjust for different types of zoom lenses. The camera also had double the amount of pixels as the best quality on the market for digital cameras. In essence it was the new game console on the market. Pre-teens, teenagers, adults, film students, and even professional photographers wanted this camera and all for different reasons. The camera somehow fit the mold and the company knew it. They were doing an initial release of the camera and only releasing a limited amount of the cameras. They wrote in the tech magazines that it was a trial base to see if there were any flaws and to see how they sold in the markets. Any business student knew it was just a way to control supply and demand and be able to put a hefty price tag on the product. Luckily for Sam this was the perfect type of score he could handle. All he had to do was take out one problem.
Sam knocked on the door of this big black studio looking office. It must have been sound proof Sam decided because the man inside did not answer. Sam had also researched the security staff. The man on shift tonight was a man named William Branton. He was in his mid-thirties, an average looking man with short trimmed blonde hair and a clean shaven face. On paper he appeared to take his work serious and be the worst guy to try and con, but if you looked deeper he had a pregnant wife who was expecting to deliver at any moment. Sam continued to bang on the door a little harder while continuing to look around for any workers getting suspicious. William finally answered the door and looked at Sam.
“Are you William?” Sam said trying to make his voice a little deeper.
“Yes. What do you want?”
“Oh my God dude. I’m supposed to tell you that your wife’s water broke. She’s in the hospital about to have your kid.”
“What! Why didn’t she call me? I can’t believe this. Our first kid and she didn’t call me.”
“Well I bet that big black box is horrible for cell phone reception. Or maybe she just panicked since it’s your first kid and didn’t realize no one contacted you.”
“Yeah I bet that’s what happened. How’d you find out?”
“I was up at the customer service desk and they received a call. I told them I could run back and relay the message. I’m on my way out anyways.”
“I wonder why they didn’t just radio me.” Sam had thought of this as a possibility as well and quickly changed the subject.
“Well aren’t you going to go man? It’s your first kid!” Sam said sounding excited.
“I can’t leave my post for another three hours when Dave comes in though. What do I do?”
“I’ll call Dave and have him come in. I just spoke to him about something for tomorrow so I know he’s not busy. I’ll cover for you while he’s on his way.”
“You sure you know what you’re doing? Are you really qualified?” William asked. Sam was hoping that he’d be too emotional to think about this.
“Of course man. I do security over at the mall. I’m sure it’s not anything I can’t handle. It’s not like anyone really steals from Wal-Mart anyways.”
“Yeah I know what you mean. It’s a pretty boring job.” William paused “Well thanks. I hope nothing happens before I get there.” He said picking up his jacket from his chair and strolling out through the back door.
Sam waited for the door to close before he walked into the security box and shut the door. He adjusted one of the cameras away from the back door and then called someone on his cell phone. “It’s clear.” Is all he said. A white van backed it’s way up into one of the loading spaces right next to the door where William had just left. Sam walked back out of the box and propped open the door. The new cameras were on a lower crate in the back still. They were on the main floor as they were to be released on the coming Tuesday. It was a Sunday evening. Two men came inside the door dressed up in delivery uniforms looking like a UPS worker with their own facial disguises. One of them wheeled over a trolley that lifted the crate full of cameras and quickly backed it to the loading dock area right next to the door. The crate was too big to fit through the door and therefore all the camera’s had to be moved by hand. The cameras were in small boxes already and the two men had brought in moving boxes that could fit forty or so of the cameras in each box. There were 1,000 cameras in total. The boxes were small enough that the men could grab several at a time. While the two men loaded the cameras into boxes and then the boxes into the back of the van Sam made sure to keep the surveillance cameras pointed away from the loading dock area and monitored to make sure there wasn’t any staff around. The only parts he had to fix was the trolley moving the crate and the van leaving the back parking lot area. Both of these things had to be done after everything was all said and done. It was just a matter of deleting the exact files from the security server. It was no problem for Sam.
After the guys were done loading up the truck they shut the back door and left. Sam quickly hacked into the server and found the files he needed to delete and deleted them. Afterwards he shut the security room up and walked to the front of the store and left. He thought about telling one of the managers to call in Dave but he knew William would be back soon enough after he went to the hospital and realized that his wife hadn’t actually gone into labor yet and was still at their house. The next step for Sam was to add the product to all the accounts he had already set up on different merchandise websites like eBay and Amazon. The product was about to be sold for $400 in stores. Sam decided to sell them online for $350. After all the cameras were to be sold and Sam had paid off the truck he rented and the two guys who had helped him he was going to earn himself around $340,000. He wondered if the two guys ever wondered if they should have asked for more than four grand apiece. Sam had paid for the truck and of course each website earns a small wage of the purchase and shipping of the cameras was also a fee Sam had to deal with. In the long run Sam had devised the plan, done the research, made sure they got out clean, and handled all the purchases. He felt it was more than fair for two of his colleagues to be paid four grand a piece to simply load and unload boxes of cameras. All and all everyone seemed happy with their heist. The two guys made their money before any camera was ever sold and made sure to tell their buddy Marcus to keep them in mind for his next con.
Sam waited until Wednesday before releasing all the cameras for sale. He sold two hundred in the first day and almost half of them in the first week. By the end of the month he barely had any left and decided he was going to keep one for himself and maybe a few more he’d send out to his brother, Charlie, and a few of his colleagues as a Christmas present. He knew Charlie would be back from Christmas break in a few weeks and he wouldn’t even think about it being stolen.