Many years ago I had been working at a hotel. The chef that had hired me on decided to move on to an new job. Security came down with him to escort him out after he emptied his office of personal items. Higher ups were obviously upset about his departure but the head of security was always a consummate professional and made sure that neither side stepped out of line.
Our second in command applied for the job and made arrangements to take over and became the new Executive Chef. We had a really good relationship and he liked to call me in to the office to pick my brain on issues so I was not surprised that soon after he took over he called me in and closed the door behind us.
ExecChef – “I have to tell somebody this and it needs to stay in this room. In my negotiations I opted not to get a pay raise but they agreed to buy me a brand new smoker. Now I am sure that they believe that they are buying the HOTEL a new smoker, but they sent me down to pick it out and do all the paperwork. It took some work but I talked the purveyor into it. Here, read this.”
He hands me the receipts and all the paperwork. There was not one mention of the hotel anywhere. Everything was done and filled out in his name. I congratulated him on talking the smoker place into doing this.
Some time later our first child was born and I transitioned into being a stay at home dad, but I kept in touch with the ExecChef and would do some overnight prep for him here and there.
Hadn't heard from him in a bit when I get a call from him.
ExecChef – “Well, it happened. I left the hotel and Security walked me out. Also had the GM and Food and Beverage Director there following close behind. Got out to the parking and backed my truck up to the smoker. GM and FBD start freaking out and yelling about stealing their property. Security came over and calmly told me not to do this as he didn't want to have to escalate to the police. I reached into my pocket and handed him the paperwork then continued to hook up my smoker. Security read over everything and shook his head while GM and FB kept on raging. Security eventually turned to them and told them there was nothing they could do as everything was listed under my name. Security handed me back the paperwork and told me to hurry up and get the smoker out of there then herded the other two back into the building as they went into apoplectic fits.”
I thought it was glorious. They took they ExecChef to court over it some time later. He told me that sadly he lost, but they did have to buy the smoker back from him. So he kinda had a win there. But the true victory would have been seeing their faces as he drove away.