The thing that bothers me the most about this whole cafe affair, is how much I underestimated the dishonesty of everyone involved. And the degree to which the Good ‘Ole Boy system goes to ignore/coverup dishonesty – not caring whom they hurt. Yes, I look at the world with Rose-Colored glasses and I’m glad I do as the world would be so depressing otherwise. But I’m still in awe of how bad it really was. I guess deceit breeds deceit and all these people ended up in the same place because humans are attracted to others similar to themselves. And there I was, floating in the middle of the deep end, surrounded by piranha.
Even if I had known everyone who worked for the Dallas Stars would have a key to our restaurant, I don’t think I would have anticipated the extent of the risk involved and stopped the business before it started. Since Pierre had worked for the Dallas Stars, I would have expected him to raise a flag if it would keep us from being successful – but back then I didn’t know he would be part of the sabotage to failure.
We were struggling to form a viable business and yet we had to spend money we didn’t have on security cameras just to survive. An expense I hadn’t anticipated. There were security cameras all over the building so it never occurred to me to ask if they worked. The building was only 5 years old so I assumed everything was in working order. And of course I had no idea at the time how much I would need them. Only after theft was running rampant did I learn the cameras didn’t work. Of course Todd was not interested in having them repaired or maybe he just turned them off intentionally. Todd didn’t work a 40-hour week, so he sure wouldn’t want that verified by cameras. I was at the rink all day everyday, so I feel comfortable saying he was hardly ever there. I would have seen him or his car at least once in a while. Todd stole from my restaurant. I know this because I came in and caught him in the act a couple times. He sure wouldn’t want that on camera. He protected his thieving employees so he wouldn’t want the camera seeing them entering our cafe after-hours. After all, it’s difficult to tell your employees not to steal when they can see you enter the cafe and steal yourself. And when I went to the corporate office with pictures, nothing happened. I didn’t expect them to fire the people on my word alone, but I did expect them to get the cameras working and put the fear of Jesus in the hearts of the perpetrators. It doesn’t take much to tell the employees we’re fixing the cameras and you’re fired if you enter tenants’ quarters when the tenants are not there. Stealing should not be tolerated. And you know if they were stealing from me they were probably stealing from the rink as well. No one cared. And that doesn’t even take into consideration that they were stealing from a disabled senior citizen – me. How low can you really go!
When my friends get excited about hockey season and post pictures of how much they love the Dallas Stars, all I can see are thieves and misogynists on skates. It’s like a knife to the heart, but I can’t tell my friends how to feel about hockey or ask them not to give their money to the Stars so I just move on. It’s difficult to forgive and forget. And part of me doesn’t want to because I sure don’t want to fall for anything like this again. Please be careful about starting your own business and with whom you associate.
Learn From My Mistakes 