This is a story about some missing turkeys at The Washington Plaza Hotel back in the day.
This happened sometime around 1988 or so.
The hotel used to give a Christmas party for all the employees with free food and drink. And that included alcoholic beverages. There was always a jolly good time with music and dancing. But some of the help drank too much and would argue over who was going to dance with who. Sometimes this would lead to fights.
Plus the management became worried about liability of those driving home intoxicated. I know one engineer was drunk enough to get a DUI on his way home to Virginia.
So the Christmas parties were cancelled and word went out that all employees would receive a free turkey for Christmas instead.
These were frozen turkeys to be kept in a freezer across from the Security Office located by the employee entrance and exit.
The Security Officers were to hand out the turkeys and get the person to sign for them or in some cases sign for the person receiving the turkey. So far so good.
Except. Lo and Behold we ran out of turkeys before everyone received one.
Turns out some of the Security Officers were giving them out to their friends outside the hotel and
maybe to friendly cab drivers who stopped by.
Maybe some took more than one turkey. Who knows?
It was quite an embarassment to the management and to the Director of Security. But more turkeys must have been acquired and the incident was soon forgotten.
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