The next day, I received a phone call from Mark Jennings, executive vise president of Dart Warehousing. He sounded pretty happy to talk to me. I explained that I had located some product that may belong to him. Mr. Jennings explained that they had been missing large amounts of product for several years and they had reported it to the Egan, MN Police department. The Egan PD had assigned an investigator who had visited the facility and was given a list of employees. He was introduced to their Facilities manager and with his help had conducted an investigation but had come up empty handed. Mr. Jennings went on to tell me that Dart had then hired a retired FBI Agent who now is a private investigator. He was given complete access to the facility and he too came up with an empty bag. Dart had been missing big screen televisions, a pallet of PDA's, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of baling twine and even a commercial size popcorn machine had come up missing. I asked Mr. Jennings if the name Tom Wilson meant anything to him and he said, "Uh…yes it does, Tom used to be our Facilities Manager." I scheduled another visit to the Dart Warehouse and Mr. Jennings said that he would get me anything I needed.
My birthday rolled around and Jen, surprised me with a $125 pair of Oakley sunglasses, and a 215hp supercharged Sea Doo jet boat. (I would have been happy with the sunglasses!) It seated four and each seat had sets of grab handles to keep riders from getting ejected from the boat. It had a waterproof, AM/FM stereo CD player with a built in cooler up front. It was the first time I had ever gotten a gift like that. My boat was a 12 foot aluminum v hull with a 15hp outboard, so this was quit a step up in the world. It was hot when we went to pick it up we met the salesman from Bismarck, ND in Mobridge, SD to keep from paying ND sales tax. It was 119 degrees that day! I couldn't wait to get it in the water. It was just in time for the F.O.P. picnic which was held every year on Bluedog Lake where the Day County Sheriff had a lake cabin. On the way back from picking it up, we stopped and picked up a tube and rope to pull behind the boat. Only my close friends knew about the boat so it would be a big surprise for everyone.
Jen and I rolled into the Bluedog Lake area and I couldn't stop grinning. I was like a…well…a guy with a new jet boat! We launched it down the lake a bit from the Sheriffs cabin and pulled up to the doc in the boat. It really made for a fun party. I ended up diving in after Agent Robertson's daughter after she fell off the raft we were pulling. She was afraid of the water so I was only pulling her and her mother about five miles an hour when they rolled off. I knew that his seven year old daughter was afraid of water but what I didn't know, was that his wife was even more terrified. They were both wearing life preservers but his wife kept pushing their daughters head under water as she panicked and attempted to climb on top of the seven year old little girl. As I dove in, I forgot about the $125 pair of sunglasses that I had pushed up on top of my head. I got out to the tube, and pulled his daughter over to me and then pushed her up on the raft. I grabbed his wife's life vest in my right hand then the tow rope with my left and pulled us back to the boat. That was the end of tubing for Lou's family and also the end of my cool sunglasses. The rest of the day was good and several more people (victims) took turns being pulled on the tube.
On Monday Zeus and I dropped Sako off at my parents house for the day. It was still dark but looked like it was going to be another hot one. Sako loved it there because she had other dogs to play with and Gramma always had treats for her. We got back on the road and headed off on another long drive back to Egan, MN. Before leaving, I had opted for a pair of khaki 511 pants, Doc Martin shoes (Jen bought for me) and a polo shirt with a compact version of the 1911 I normally carry, since I was meeting with professionals who most likely didn't even know that people like me still existed. My old tattered K9 uniform, consisting of black 511 tactical pants and black tactical shirt would take a well deserved break for the day. I arrived at 9am and was greeted by a secretary who took me back and introduced me to another secretary who then introduced me to Mr. Jennings. Mr. Jennings in turn, introduced me to another VP and they took me back to a meeting room where they had several folders set aside for me and even a nice assortment of donuts and coffee. Normally I'd have taken offense to the donuts but I was starving since I hadn't eaten in three and a half hours. Mr. Jennings explained that each time they had someone investigate the losses, they had put the investigator with their Facilities Manager, Tom Wilson. Wilson had led the investigators around and they could only speculate that maybe it was one of the "day laborers" that they had hired. He went on to explain that Wilson had been "let go" do to his personal use of a company credit card and problem with coming to work intoxicated. In the folders, were the employees names and each name was associated with a individual pass code for the different warehouse alarm systems. I was also given a folder sent to them by the alarm company detailing each warehouse pass code entry, time and date. I showed them photographs of the twine and a pallet jack that had been left in the semi trailer. Written on the pallet jack in black permanent marker and clearly visible in the photograph was, "Leon" Then below that was written, "Cisco". Mr. Jennings told me that Dart Warehousing Inc. rents sections of its warehouse to companies who store merchandise there. He said that they have only a fence with a gate to keep people from entering the Cisco area from within the main warehouse. Cisco was one of the Dart Warehouse renters and "Leon" was their warehouse manager. He said that Cisco has complained of two pallet jacks which had gone missing. The most recent was two weeks prior, on a Monday. Cisco had made a complaint that another pallet jack had gone missing from the locked, alarmed building. Mr. Jennings gave me a photo of Wilson and all of his personal information. He also told me that Wilson had a small trucking company, and owned a couple of old semi tractors. I asked if I could see the warehouse area and interview a few of the employees from where the twine had vanished. I was given permission and led back to the warehouse area where I interviewed five of the employees who worked around Mr. Wilson. I was asking mostly about Wilson but during my interview with a young man whom worked with Wilson, I observed signs that there was more. I dug a little deeper and eventually he admitted that Not only had he seen Wilson taking cases of food and beverages home with him on several occasions but he also had taken items from the warehouse.
I reported what I had found before leaving the facility and took the folders full of data with me. Zeus hadn't been out of my vehicle in several hours, so before leaving Egan, I found a nice front lawn of a business for him to do his business. It was getting dark when we rolled back into Roberts County but I couldn't wait to pour over the information I had been given by Jennings. I called Rick and let him know that we were getting close after stopping by my parents house to pick up Sako. When I walked into my house it was hot inside. I didn't have any air conditioning in the old Love shack so I opened as many windows as I could and kicked on a couple of fans. I walked over to the local gas station and grabbed a six pack of beer to cool me off and cracked one open as I walked back home.
To be continued...
