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| Michigan Metro Girls Scouts |
Now I have also had the instance to be fired from Michigan Metro Girl Scout Council. I worked there most of 1997, before Salvation Army and my second employment at Sears. My immediate Supervisor was a woman named Adrian Burns. Adrian was a petite woman, who had pride in her appearance and a working knowledge of Girl Scout practices. The only problem was that she was stealing all the cookie money. I started working at Girl Scouts in February, 1997. The cookies sale was in full swing, but Adrian did a rally at Webster, Mark Twain and Alcott and got me girls for troops. She told the principals that she was taking over the Pontiac Office, and the woman before her had been derelict in her duties. She would be taking over the Pontiac area and needed to start troops in all the local elementary schools. What she was really doing is generating cash for herself and her unemployed husband, and her daily cocaine habit.
As soon as we went to the schools, sang a few songs and got the girls interested I started working. I started working on the cookie sale for all three schools that is. I got brochures and passed them out and told the girls they had limited time, because the sale would be over soon. There was only one troop at Webster, but at Alcott and Mark Twain there was two. One for Brownies (4-6 year olds) and my troops the Juniors (7-10 year olds). I wanted to work with the older girls, because I could talk and relate with them more easily. I didn't want Romper Room, where I had to deal with runny noses and tummy aches. Adrian had no problem with that and ran the other two groups. Now I know why she didn't mind, the Brownies sold the most cookies and were really "Big Business". Their parents mostly did their sales at work and church and stuff and they had the largest return. This suited Adrian's under-handed schemes very well.
Adrian was the "clean-up person" and her boss, also a thief, used her in whatever fashion she wished. Since she knew Adrian was a thief, who used McDonald's Millennium Project money to buy a huge house in Southfield and had a husband who was faking a back injury to recieve Social Security, she treated her with much disrespect. Knowing that although Adrian had stuff on her, she was in too deep. She had a mortgage, three car payments two teenagers and a no good husband, and she couldn't afford to rock the boat. She needed the extra she was stealing too badly, to actually put up a big fight about it. Jane had a husband that was an executive in L.A. who she visited often. She didn't need the money as badly as Adrian, and she used all of that to over extend, over exert and punish Adrian for being skinny and "ghetto-fabulous" on Girl Scout Cookies. Adrian in turn called her fat at every chance she could get. Let me remind you these women were very good friends. Jane was the God-Mother to Adrian's oldest child who is not her husband's. He was also a vital part in the stealing of cookie money.
Ben, that's his name, worked for a bank. He was the one who allowed his mother to hide all the money she stole. After my cookie sales were over the plot thickened. I told Adrian on several times that I was ready for her to collect the money. She would say things like, "I'm so busy, let's do it tomorrow." Only tomorrow never would come. Sitting in my cousin's kitchen, I had occasion to mention my boss and her trusting me with the money for so long. My cousin gave me a stern warning, she said, "Lesley, don't keep that money in your drawer like that. I remember I held the money for the Usher Board at church. I had all that cash laying around and I dipped into it all the time. By the time they collected the money, I had to go into my own money and pay them. You need to go right now and put that money in money orders." The next day, I did just that, because I had started to think about dipping in it for things here and there, and knew my cousin was right. I remember when I was younger and my sister sold candy for band. We ate all the bars, and my mother end up owing the school $20. I got the money orders and replaced them in the spot the money use to sit in my drawer, hid the receipts and waited for Adrian.
One day, maybe three weeks later towards the end of the school year, she told me that she was ready, and I was to bring the money into work the next day. I was also running the Pontiac Office, and was her administrative assistant. The next day, I brought the money orders and sat them in front of her. The look on her face, now is priceless, but at the time I didn't have a clue. She picked up the four pieces of paper and let them fall back on the table. There was a total of about $4,500 signified. There was $700 from Mark Twain, $600 from Webster and a whopping $2100 from Alcott, plus $1,200 from a Cookie Booth I ran at the Flea Market. The owner was good enough to allow me a free booth for three consecutive weekends. I derived a schedule for the girls who wanted to participate to work in threes in two hour shifts, depending on troop size. Alcott was my largest troop and most of those girls lived around the corner or up the block. They had the biggest return.
On the day I received my cookies from Alcott, with the biggest number of Brownies and Juniors it was after hours. Aaron, a truck driver for MMGSC pulled the truck up to the door and unloaded countless numbers of cookies. This was the same young man who had been delivering cookies from Detroit on a regular basis to the office, for our own personal "Cookie Cupboard". Now I know that he was actually stealing those cookies from the Main Branch's office for Adrian. All those cookies were her own little personal piggy bank. People love Girl Scout Cookies and called the office on a regular basis for them, even after the drive was over. Well, needless to say, we had some. The women who worked downstairs who would come up to buy them after March would ask, "Aren't cookies over with now? Why do ya'll still have cookies?" I didn't know what to say, and made up a story about having extras.
A month after taking my cookie money, Adrian and I had to help another woman with her in-school day-camps. Adrian had been talking about me to the other women and making me feel very uncomfortable. Maureen a volunteer and ex-Girl Scout she made my biggest foe. She knew who to get close to and who she could mess over. She saw me as her biggest threat, because she knew that she was just the clean-up woman. I was a Pontiac native, articulate and able. Furthermore, I had big plans for the next year and dealing with the girls. I wanted to partner with local churches to make running the troops in our city more monetarily sound. This would allow the girls to do more activities and such. Being a thief, Adrian didn't want anyone in her mix like that. Someone might get on to her, and ask for their piece of the pie. On that same note, like I was saying, I was her biggest competition for the Pontiac Office, and Jane didn't care. She had enough on her plate, and would move Adrian to another area, give me the Pontiac Office and move on. It was Adrian's job to get me fired or force me to quit.
It almost worked when she came to me one afternoon during our Summer Camps and told me I owed her $936. Yes, I do remember the exact amount. What she failed to know is that, while I was preparing for a Nacho Feast with my Alcott girls, after In-School Day Camp, I saw her reports on her desk from a meeting she had that day. For some reason, and to this day I don't know why, I glanced at that report. It was the cookie sales for the entire Marketing Area that included Pontiac. I saw the cookies signified for Webster, they were only 35. They didn't have a Brownie troop, and I saw the cases signified for mark Twain, and that was a larger number due to the Brownie Troop there. The largest sales, however, Alcott which in total was about 76 cases of my sales alone were gone. Each case equaled $36, and that was about the girls only received about $3 a case. I actually spent my own money to throw the Nacho Feast at Mark Twain and Alcott, and Potluck I had a Webster. Girls Scouts make very little from the actual cookie sales themselves. That's why there was such a huge need for community participation.
Adrian would buy treats and cookies from the dollar store, although she had a means of taking money from an account geared for the girls needs. We did simple tasks of making things out of Popsicle sticks and Dollar Store activities, but I saw expense reports for far more. So when she told me that I had to pay $936 or lose my job, knowing that she hadn't accounted for more than half of my sales. I told her, "Recount those numbers and talk to me later. I don't think I owe you that much." She got a sick feeling on her face, and asked me, "How much do you think you owe." I picked an M&M off the floor threw it in the garbage and said, "Nothing". She shook her head and said, "Oh, you owe me something!" I looked at her, smiled and repeated, "Check your figures and get back to me." She left it like that, but came back to me twice with lower numbers, and I still would not relent. I had given her over $4,500 of which she was accountable for less than half. My mind had gone back to the day I recieved my Alcott cookies and had to go run my troop, and when I had come back all my cookies were suddenly mismatched. When I told Adrian about it, she replied, "Oh, I had to get some from yours, I didn't order enough and this woman was getting on my nerves. We'll straighten it out when we get to the office." Since I had the cookies to give my parents, I didn't think anything of it. The shortage came from the Cookie Booth cookies, and they were no real set amount. I just wanted to give the girls a taste of Girl Scout's.
When the new school year began, she was really upset I was still there. Around the second week of September, I got a letter in the mail. The letter said that if I didn't pay this set amount, I don't remember the exact amount, but it was less that the three previous amount, I would be fired. I called Jane in Detroit and asked to speak to her. We had a meeting where I showed her evidence of the sales from Alcott. The sales that Adrian had not told the organization about. She got a "cat that ate th canary smile on her face." Adrian shifted in her seat uncomfortably and I stared at Jane for help. Instead, she did some quick math, lowered the amount I owed to yet a smaller amount, around $200 and sent us back to Pontiac. I felt confident, because I had just beat Adrian at her own game. I had an expense report due, and Jane helped me to pad it and I was looking for a check for that amount to be able to pay of Girl Scouts. I think Jane wanted me to stick around, one to keep an eye on and hover over Adrian like a Jane clone. Secondly, she kinda liked the ideas I had for creating a fun and global experience for the girls. That being what Girl Scouts was really all about. Adrian had made it into a money making scheme, pulling Jane in with her son, and more than likely some remembrance of harder times when they had first started there together as young women. Times when Jane had a need for cookie money, too.
Needless to say Adrian had been with Girl Scouts far too long for that, and the check Jane and I had contrived never came. Well, it came, but only after I had missed the deadline. Jane's plan could only work if I paid the money, before it was due. After would give Adrian the ammunition to fire me, and that's exactly what happened. She employed one of the women in the Accounting Department to hold my check back. I got it two days after the date the money was due, and after I had paid the money, Jane called for me to meet in her office. I sat there thinking that she was going to give me instructions on my new project, DAPP. Only she informed me that I would have to leave Girl Scouts, due to not having the money in on time. I was grateful to her, though. I know Adrian had went to her the very next day the money was due to have me fired. She waited, however, until I had made the payment in an effort to save my reputation. To this day, I do not owe Girl Scout a single dime. Adrian went a long way to make my name mud, amongst the parents and school administrators. The truth still is that I don't owe them a penny!
The day before a big day I had planned for girls I was trying to pick-up the following year at Jefferson, I was arrested, and had to miss the day. I truly believe that was a favor given her by the crooked Pontiac Police Department. I was arrested for embezzlement, too. That gave her even more to talk about. I had given this woman and her husband beer and candy and stuff from Concord where I had worked prior. Nothing huge, and definitely not as huge as paying your house payment, three car payments, buying new clothes every week and taking care of her nose; everyday! It was still stealing, and I have asked God for his forgiveness. I don't steal, and that's the end of it for me.
I believe that Adrian Burns still works for Girl Scouts, but she no longer has that Southfield address. I told everyone I could about her greedy ways, after my arrest for stalking and seeing her at Sears where Jeff Smith's mother worked. I wrote letters to the new administration at Girl Scouts, six years later. She will do her best to retire from that job. I will do my best to enlighten the people of Metro Detroit about the "real deal" of the yearly cookie sale. Tell parents about the cash only policy and being aware of Cookie Cupboards and post cookie sales. Adrian wasn't alone and had several other women she worked with who were at that job just as long. I doubt if these incidents are exclusive to her, and that there are still little girls out there being pimped for Girl Scout Cookie money. So parents, get money order, if you are in dire need of money don't sell, because any amount of money you turn in will be taken and the only amount signified will be the amount you owe. That's an old accounting trick, and when you want to see the whole account, which people rarely do. She'll have a friend in accounting make a dummy report. Cookie time is coming up, most sales begin in January and end in March. Remember this blog and be cookie ready! I'm just saying...
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