Leaving Stuff on the Train

As every week brings new stories of civil servants leaving disks, usb keys and laptops in inappropriate places, I don't know about you, but I'm getting a whole lot pissed off about this. No, that's not what it is, I'm getting frustrated and perplexed.

The latest story to cross my path was in our local free newspaper, and talks about a chap who was actually fined £2500 for leaving some important documents on the train. It turns out that he'd inadvertently picked up these documents as he was leaving work, whilst scooping up his paper to read on the train journey home. So far, so sympathetic. Fair do's, it was a mistake. So the guy realises he's made this phenomenal blunder, and decides to take the documents back to work in the morning. Again, I'm with him at this point. Genuine mistake, guv, was just about to put the back, no harm done.

But this is where it becomes perplexing. He's realised his error, and he's working on correcting it. He's on his way back to work the next morning, with the documents, and he manages to leave them on the train. What? How has he NOT got these things handcuffed to his wrist, knowing that there will be all sorts of shenanigans on his return to the office when it's discovered that he has lost them?

I get pissy with my girls when they manage to lose things. Here I am, assuming that at 9 and 10, they should be able to look after their own stuff - I mean, if it's important to them, they mustn't assume that I'll just replace it when they lose it. Don't you think? It's not as if their stuff is important to anyone else, but since it's important to them, surely it's not much to ask them to take care of it. Actually, the 10 year old does fairly well, despite being a little daffy, and since we don't use the train that often, we've not had THAT much loss yet. But this chap in the paper is 38 years old, for crying out loud.

So, am I the only one who's beginning to wonder if there isn't something a little more sinister going on than just plain carelessness? Maybe the £2500 fine is a drop in the ocean compared with what he's getting from the opposition for delivering these "lost" documents into their grubby little mitts. It just seems to me that there is SO much publicity about these so called losses, that people MUST be aware of what they are carrying, and therefore, they're either incompetent to the point of stupidity, or they're working for the enemy.

"Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action."