Digital Equipment Corporation & Me
Just out of college in the mid eighties, I worked for DEC, along with several college friends. We were all in Systems or Field Service. I installed and serviced larger VAX machines, while my best friend serviced MicroVAXes. One fine day we all realized that Logistics, the department responsible for carrying spare parts, had terrible inventory control, as well as a lot of larger installations having their own on site spares. A scheme was hatched, we'd sign out parts for this or that customer, then return random similar parts as non-working, and I was tasked with selling these pilfered parts to dealers. The scheme really took off with the introduction of the MicroVAX II, as DEC wouldn't sell bare bones systems with just a box with the CPU board. Through some kind of fluke in pricing, we could buy a replacement KA630 CPU board for around $1,200. This was supposed to be a $9,600 part, and not meant to be sold on its own.
Eventually the scheme fell apart, as 99% of such schemes do, and I got caught with my hand in the proverbial cookie jar, and was charged with federal charges of interstate transportation of stolen property. One of my friends was newly married, another was expecting his first baby, and as I was the only one that the FBI was interested in, I took the fall for everyone. Stupid move, due to my age, the perceived complexity of the scheme, and the dollar loss, I was handed a 15 year sentence. This was in the old days, when parole was still available to federal inmates, but an inmate still had to serve one third of the sentence, and hope for leniency from the parole board, who, it turned out, had never heard of that word. I ended up serving eight and a half years in federal prison, before being released to a halfway house, then the balance of my sentence to be served on parole, with very strict rules. Interestingly, within a year, my parole officer allowed me back into the used systems market, and for the next several years I made a decent living buying equipment from surplus and leasing companies and reselling to dealers all across the country. But I'd learned a huge lesson. Never again will I put my life and my future at risk, I don't even speed in my car.
Side note: I spent most of my time in a relatively cushy prison/hospital complex, where I quickly landed a cushy job. At various times I shared my cell with Jim Bakker, the infamous televangelist, and a very interesting year with Lyndon Larouche, during his 1992 presidential campaign. He has an extremely intelligent man, though a tad bit crazy. I enjoyed our many talks about politics, religion, and the state of our country. He was also a racist POS. The rest of my time was spent with counterfeiters, bank robbers and drug dealers, along with a few corrupt judges, cops, and the former mayor of Syracuse, NY, who was genuinely crazy, in fact residing in the mental health unit.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
