Who Broke Into the ACOG?
May 10, 2011
Outsiders could barely get in the door. Employees had to flash special ID badges and use electronic cards to make the elevators move. But all the security didn't work, according to ACOG employees. Practically under the noses of a phalanx of security guards, someone ransacked the belongings of employees working on several floors of an ACOG building on Peachtree Street, three blocks from Centennial Games Park. Many of those employees had just moved from the building to Games competition sites on temporary assignments as the Games were starting last month. Employees say they left behind packed boxes with office supplies, picture frames, Games souvenirs and other belongings after being told their things would be safe. But when they came back during the Games, some employees found that the boxes containing their belongings had been torn open, their contents poured across the floor and pilfered. ``Anything was fair game,'' says one ACOG staffer, who complained about the theft but was criticized for tempting would-be thieves wandering through the mostly empty offices. The thieves apparently didn't get much gold in the process, making off with little more than picture frames, compact disks and the like. But the question lingers: How could anyone leave the heavily guarded building with so much purloined stuff? That could go down as an Games mystery. An ACOG spokeswoman says that after asking several security officials about the incident, she could find nobody who even knew it had taken place. ``Nobody I have spoken to is aware at all of any theft,'' she says. ``Everyone gave me the same look of surprise.'' --Rickie Bruno
