The Sentinel, Jobs

      We have had many jobs in Joyce and my lifetime. Joyce had more than me.

      We were married right after I was in the navy and she could not find a job back then because wherever we were stationed employers knew we would be transferred soon, so they wouldn’t hire navy wives. That was a long time ago and that was the way things were at that time. Once we were out of the navy’s grasp, Joyce could find jobs and get hired. She has had more different work than we can remember every workplace. Many of her careers were in some type of accounting position, accounts payable, accounts receivable and fraud control. The fraud control operations were by far more interesting.
      Once she was working with a UPS investigator, Joyce at her California position the UPS guy in Florida. With Joyce’s help, he had tracked down a group that was following UPS trucks and then picking up packages that were placed on the doorstep of homes in what were designated as safe to leave a package. He had found the home they were operating from. He had called the local police to arrest the perpetrators and was in his car outside the home. That was at one end of the block. Unknown to either Joyce or the UPS guy there was a drug trafficking home at the other end of the same block. He and Joyce were speaking on the phone when the local police came up with lights and sirens and at the same moment the DEA team was doing the same at the other home. This was happenibg in a very upscale neighborhood where everyone was working except the crooks. The UPS man let out a few expletives without thinking he was still on the phone not realizing he was on line with a fine lady. He apologised and said he would call her back later. The Florida district attorney wanted Joyce to come there to aid in their prosecution, but she had to decline.
      Another case had to do with a prison on the east coast while Joyce was still in California. The prison had prisoners working in their print shop, which also manufactured American Express cards. One of the criminal geniuses started making cards for his buddies and prison stationary for them to use for mail scams. Joyce tracked the operation down and notified the warden of what was happening. Here’s the kicker, the warden said, “even though they are in prison, they still have rights and I can’t do anything about it.”
      One last case, Joyce was working here in Missouri at a local company. One of the managers told Joyce to investigate and find out where things were disappearing from. Joyce did her duty well, too well because the culprits were the men in the shipping department overwich he controlled. If that wasn’t bad enough the manager was in on the deal. Joyce was the only one who suffered. She was forced out for doing her job efficiently.        My different jobs were few, working in a small chili and tamale plant. Working in a potato salad factory and a car repair garage until I enlisted in the navy and went to electronics training. Once in electronics I was pigeon holed into that field in some form or another for the rest of my working life.