Helpdesk

Let me start by saying I work from home for an organization's IT helpdesk. I've done it for years, now, and I enjoy what I do. I take calls from all over the world, often starting my morning ending calls with "Cheers!" and saying "Aloha" by the end of the day.

One day, I took a call from Hawaii. They complained that their printer was spitting out jargon (random characters), which isn't an altogether uncommon occurrence. They mentioned power issues, as well. The lights would routinely turn off. Never the same two lights, and often on separate circuits from one another. I quickly dismissed it. Power and lights aren't my issues to fix. I asked the customer what was displayed on their printer's screen. They reported that it, too, was jargon. Suspecting memory corruption, I instructed the customer to power off the printer. When the customer flipped the power switch, the customer reported that the printer remained on. I then instructed the customer to remove the power cable from the printer. The printer remained on.

At this point, I suspected a case of ID-10T and requested another user to please attempt to power off the printer. That other user confirmed that the power cable was unplugged. I then instructed the user to remove all other cables from the printer. The user reported that the printer remained on and has since printed out another page filled with jargon, except for one phrase, in the middle of the page, surrounded by asterisks: "***T167GJ***"

Given that this matches the format of our organization's employee numbers, I searched for the number. The only information I could find was that the employee was terminated a few months prior to the call. I asked my customer on the phone if they had anyone with that employee number at their location. I could hear muffled muttering in Hawaiian, which I couldn't understand. The customer then said, "no" and abruptly ended the call.

A few weeks passed without incident before I received another call from our Hawaii location, reporting that they would arrive in the morning to find the terminals logged in as user "T167GJ." I advised the customer that this isn't possible, as that user is no longer in the directory. To be safe, I searched for any user profiles with that username, but found none. After verifying they were able to log in, I dismissed it as a prank and attempted to end the call. They reported, also, that their printer still was not working. Not knowing what else to do in the way of troubleshooting, I submitted a service request to the printer's manufacturer.

A day or so later, I received another call from this location. They have a new printer and the issues persist: Prints jargon, displays jargon on the screen, and remains powered on when unplugged. On a whim, I decided to access the printer's configuration through the network. When I accessed the printer's configuration, the background was red and there was jargon everywhere. The only discernible text was a name: Geoff Mason. I assumed it was data from a corrupted print job, placed another RMA, and ended the call.

The next morning, I attempted to log into my office PC and couldn't. I instead received the message, "This computer is in use by T167GJ and has been locked." At that point, I was a little freaked. I thought there was maybe a hacker that had infiltrated our network. I rebooted my workstation remotely, logged in, and immediately sent an e-mail to the Security team. Later that day, I got an e-mail from Security. They reported to me that the T167GJ was disabled as the user had been terminated, and provided a name: Geoff Mason.

I began scouring the internet for a "Geoff Mason" in Hawaii, and could find only one. His Facebook wall was plastered with "RIP" and "You'll be missed." One person alluded to a workplace accident, saying his family should sue the organization. I messaged the individual through Facebook and inquired what had happened. I learned that Geoff Mason was the maintenance guy for our Hawaii location, and had been running wire when he fell through the drop ceiling and was hanged by a coil of wire.

I'm not sure where to go or what to do with this. Last night, I heard someone crawling through my ceiling. Lights in different parts of my house are flickering on and off. As I type this... dear God, my printer is spitting out jargon.