Life as a Physicist

It turns out CERN has a small thief. Building 180 is a huge building where most of the muon detector construction was done (I’ll have pictures posted when I get back to the US). Apparently the first stole a saw. This was a nice saw. But they didn’t try to sell it. The next thing they did was use the saw to cut through the restraining bolts holding down the nice coffee machines (this is Europe: people spend a lot on those). They kept coming back. A few computers. Tools — lots of tools. CERN added security. The problem is building 180 is huge, so as long as you hear them coming it is easy to hid. One guy got so pissed off he decided to catch the guy by spending the night. Unfortunately, security did find him (apparently drunk). Someone else had the bright idea of putting up a small webcam and attaching to a computer. They got the thief… stealing the webcam (no, I’m not joking).

Though they know who he is, they can’t use that evidence to get rid of him because the area was not clearly demarked as an area under surveillance. Small items continue to disappear…

I wish I could see the video of the hand leaning over to grab the camera.