Dewtective

So, on Thursday i’m getting ready for a semi-quiet day at work, last day of a super-long and tiring week, when the following shows up in my email inbox:

Dear Dew

I read with intrest your appreciative article of company X. I would like to let you know that this company is run by a crook who is hiding behind the backs of a number of people, some of which you have interviewed for your article. The man actually running the company has been in jail for armed robbery and white collar crimes. He has opened and shut at least 4 companies in the past, stealing money from investors and employyes. He has personally stolen 10K sheqel from myself and then threw me to the dogs without paying a cent of what he owed me for my investment and as my paycheck. I am sure this man will use your article to lure in more innocent investors and employees and rob them of their money like he did to me.

I know that this sounds like a letter from someone looking for revenge, but I really just don’t want to see anyone hurt by Mr (insert WASPy name here… let’s call him Ernest Crooky or something), as I have been.

Signed

One who learned his lesson

 

Hmmm… so much for my quiet, calm day.

So – first of all I run to my editor with the mail and ask her what she thinks of this,. I admit that the company seemed fishy to begin with, but everything they said to me, seemed to check out. As my editor said to me – nothing we wrote about the company was actually *wrong*. We never said they *were* planning to give the investors their money back (as opposed to pocketing all of their money and then going bankrupt). People take their chances, and many companies are run by crooks.

Yeah. So I didn’t actually write anything wrong.. which is a comfort. But now what? We still ran an article that can propel people right into the hands of some crooky monster who will only use them…

So we checked up on this guy. We didn’t find the armed robbery, but we did find a few small law-breaks and one major crime having to do with the army. I mailed the anonymous tipper back and asked him for the guy’s identity number (like a social security number) and other info that can help us show that he has been a swindler in the past, and has maybe operated in a pattern that we can already see in this company.

Then I mailed the guy I had been in touch with and said: "Is a guy called Ernst Crooky connected to your company? We got an email from someone who seems to have known him in a previous job".

He said: "I can’t answer that, for reasons that I can’t explain at the moment. Are you planning another article about us?".

OKAY. Not only is this guy connected to the company, but he is also a very shameful name… one they are trying the best they can to hide. I wrote back: "Hm, I can understand from your mail that he is related. I’m not planning another article, but can you tell me off off off the record why you can’t talk about him? I admit this seems a little weird".

He wrote: "I’ll explain some other time. It’s not weird at all"

I wrote: "Well, now I’m really curious. Can you gve me a hint?"

No answer for over 8 hours, from a guy who previously answered all of my mails within 10 minutes.

SO

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What do I do now???? I’m not really prepared to open an argument with Mafia of any kind. I am SO not that kind of person. I like my quiet life and I’m not really looking for drama. Actually, I am way less amused about the situation than I was at first. I am a lot more upset than amused. Nir is, too. He said: "you’re dropping this thing. We don’t need to find Albert’s (the rabbit) head on our doorstep".

 I guess I have 3 main options at the moment:

1. Drop it like a chicken. Pretend there’s nothing i can do about it and think about it no more. As my editor said: there are hundreds of companies run by crooks. People even loose money in companies not run by crooks.

2. Take it somewhere else, like a half-baked chicken. I can collect all of the evidence and go to one of the sensation-seeking TV shows, hoping that it will be big enough for them. The cons of this idea are that a. I’ll have to live with knowing I’m a chicken who let others do my dirty work, b, the crooks might still blame me and c. The TV show will for sure portray me as a looser journalist. I can just hear it: "These cunning crooks were even able to fool the young, stupid, female journalist from XXX. But they couldn’t fool US!". Also, not all the people who read my article will be watching the TV show. It makes sense to righten the wrongs in the same place and with the same audience where they were wronged in the first place, no?

3. Take care of it myself. It’s not difficult to obtain enough evidence to write an article "Mr crooky was in jail, abandoned 4 companies and maybe you should be careful of the next one". That should not only suffice but also be pretty safe… however, do I really want to make powerful, criminal enemies?

The anonymous mailer wants me to pose as someone looking for a job as a telemarketer and fishing all kinds of sooky evidence with quotes like "Mr. Crooky pretends he’s talking to the president when he’s actually connected to a pre-recording of his pet parrot". But there’s no way I’m going near this guy’s office. That’s where the line is deffinately drawn for me!

What would you do?

 

 

 

In other news. I had  crazy hectic week. I like my job but I’m finishing each week on my hands and knees lately. I get up on Thursday (last day of the work week here) and I can’t believe the weekend hasn’t come yet. I woke up on Tuseday this week and for a moment I was like "it’s Friday… how lovely…" until I remembered it wasn’t even close to Friday. That was a rude awakening. It *should* have been Friday!

I had a sudden memory today of something that happened just when I starte writing this diary, when I was 23. I was with Odie then (anyone remember him?) and my parents invited me on a 2-week long trip with them. And I agreed! And I told the poor guy "I’m going on a trip with my parents". Without you. You can’t come. And we’re not planning a seperate trip together, because you don’t have any money and I don’t have enough to loan you. How could I have been such a bi*ch? I would be so hurt if my boyfriend just announced something like that! True. We were much younger and it was my first serious relationship, so my idea of being together was way different from what it is now. But I also remember that I just needed a vacation FROM him. Needed it like air. Needed it so much I went on vacation with my parents and didn;t feel stifled! On the contrary, I fealt free!

I wonder why I didn’t end it then and there. I was so stupid when I was 23… couldn’t realize that feeling like that meant that something was super-seriously wrong with the relationship.

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Went out with Carrot and Giraffe yesterday. Carrot said that Giraffe was weird. Phew.. it’s not just me thinking that. We were wondering where to go and I was like "somewhere where the music is not loud enough to talk" and she said "who wants to talk! I want to drink!", which is something I can understand…. but it’s so not Giraffe. She always used to agree with me on this point. We dragged ourselves from bar to bar but none of them suited her, until we ended up somewhere that looked nice at first, but ended up being too quiet and uncool for her and put her in a real funk. Before that she had been like semi-dancing around in front of us on the street, you know? Running ahead of me and Carrot, skipping, as if she way saying "i’m so cool. Look at my body. Look how free and unconformist I am". But we couldn’t find a place to make her feel sexy enough. I got the feeling she was looking at us thinking "I’m at a non-cool place with my non-cool friends. I want to go out with people who make interesting things happen". I don’t like being given that feeling. As if I have to get drunk and make a fool of myself so my bored friend will feel entertained.

So me and Carrot talked about pension funds for, like, 20 minutes. With someone else would be like "oh, look at us talking about pension funds, we’re so old". But I knew she would say"Oh, yes, you’re so old. It’s such a shame" with this *look* in her eyes, that I just kept talking pension funds on purpose. So that she could go home and tell her roommate "what a boring evening. Sat around in a boring bar with my boring friend talking about pension funds". And feel good about herself.

Hey, I don’t mind being a bit wild myself sometimes. But lately, if I’m wild (well, wild-ish at least), she looks at me like I’m taking her place or copying her, but if i’m boring she looks at me like i’m…. boring. I can’t seem to act like myself around her anymore, while I don’t really have a problem around anyone else. The sad thing is that she’s so divorced from the Giraffe she once was, who was proud of liking AbbA and not smoking pot… it’s like she erased every bit of her former self and turned into a big fake.