Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — A lot of us do it: come into our office each workday and toss the purse under the desk, or put our wallets, keys and cellphones in the unlocked top drawer. Well, Misty Davis, an office manager at a small Salt Lake business, says “don’t.”
Davis works at Chef Shamy Gourmet, a family-owned company that manufactures and sells a variety of seasoned butter products, such as honey butter and garlic butter. The company has about 20 employees in its Salt Lake office and has sold its products to stores around the country since 2008.
Last Monday, a man and a woman, possibly in their late 20s, walked into the company lobby and quickly made off with Davis’ purse, which she had always placed under her desk.
It’s all captured on a video surveillance camera in the lobby. Besides contacting the police, the company’s general manager, Daniel Zank, took the images from the security system and turned it into a humorous 2 1/2-minute video and put it on YouTube.
“The original thought was if you don't make it engaging and put it out there on social media, people aren't going to watch it,” Zank said Friday. “You have to make it fun.”
The video, with a lively piano music track and some occasional font, explains how the couple walked into the lobby in the middle of the day to “supposedly” apply for a job. They asked to fill out applications, and as they waited they quickly spotted Davis’ purse under her desk. The video shows employees walking through the lobby several times, not suspecting anything unusual. When the lobby clears, the woman grabs the purse, and the couple leaves.
A few hours later, Misty Davis got the bad news when she received a call from the fraud department at Best Buy.
“And they said, 'We have a suspicious transaction of $454 on your credit card here with your I.D. Are you authorizing this purchase?'" Davis recalled. "And I said heavens no!”
That’s when she realized her purse was gone.
Davis would later learn that her credit card was used to buy gasoline, and her credit union checking account was drained of a thousand dollars. That’s not all she lost.
“My Social Security card, my driver’s license, my credit cards, my car keys to two vehicles, my house keys, and the keys to the business,” Davis listed.
She canceled all her credit cards, and company employees took up a collection to help out financially. The police have also examined the surveillance video, but for the moment there are no leads.
There are 22 surveillance cameras mounted throughout the building at Chef Shamy Gourmet. Zank says the company takes security seriously.
“[This] was hard. For all the efforts we go through to try to keep our employees safe. Just to see it happen under our noses like this. I take a little bit of personal responsibility,” he said.
There’s a lesson here for everyone: If there is unusual activity on your accounts, call your financial institution and check, and cancel if necessary. And that purse under your desk, or wallet in the top drawer at work, put them in a secure place.
“I definitely will lock up my personal belongings and try to be more aware of my surroundings and people that I don't know,” Davis said. “It's devastating. I'm a single mom, struggling. They don't know the impact they made but it's very violating. I learned a rough lesson for sure.
