Weird Lady

Holly... This one is for you.

So the other night I was working at the hospital. I was sitting at the front desk to the hospital, and it was somewhere in the middle of the night. Maybe I should mention for those that might not know me very well that I work as a security officer. My task while sitting at this desk is to verify that those people wishing to visit the hospital after hours are there for legitimate reasons.

As I'm sitting there as woman approaches the desk. She asks to go visit the 4th floor. For those familiar with the hospital, this is the floor where new mothers and their babies are. Its also a lock down unit. Unless you know the mother, and she has invited you, and given you her code to enter the floor you can't go up. I asked the woman what room she was going to visit. She didn't know. So far not unusual. I asked her the name of the patient she was here to see, so I could look up the room number. She paused for a minute, then gave me a plane-jane name like Jennifer. No last name.

At this point I am starting to get a little suspicious. I asked for the last name of the patient, and again she paused. She didn't know the last name. I tried my hardest to smile, as I politely told her that she couldn't go up to the floor i she did not know the name of the patient, or even what room she was in. I suggested that she try and call the patient, or someone close to the patient, and obtain the necessary information for her to pass. While she the woman did not say anything else to me at this point, she looked hesitant to leave. She turned and walked back the way she came.

Not five minutes later, she came back to my desk and gave me a first and last name. Again is was very plane-jane, something like Jennifer Smith. Let me remind you at this point that I am not using the actual name she gave me. I don't know if a Jennifer Smith exists, but if she does, she was not the actual subject of this story.

I looked on my census of the hospital. No Jennifer Smith. She then changed the name of the person she was looking for. Again, plane-jane. Not on the list. I kindly told her that we had none of those people in our hospital, and that it was time to leave. No attempt at a smile this time.

She again looked hesitant to leave. Instead of walking back out the way she came, she headed for a different exit, a hallway much closer to my desk. A few moments later when she must have thought I wasn't looking, she cut back down the hallways and into the hospital. Rather than yell at her, or give chase, I radioed to the other security officers. I gave them her description, and a short version of what had happened. I asked them to watch her and see what she tried to do. It wasn't two minutes later that she came back down the hallway and headed back out the way she had originally come. With two other security officers following behind her.

I did not see her again after that. But while I was recounting to the other officers what had transpired, I remembered that the same exact thing had happened, with I believe the same woman, about a year prior. I wish now I had asked for some ID, because I believe this woman's intentions were to snatch a baby.

Now comes the ranting. I just don't get it. Even if she had no intentions of stealing a baby, why come to the hospital in the middle of the night and try to sneak around? There is nothing good you can be trying to do in the middle of the night at a hospital. You also look a lot more suspicious in the middle of the night when you are trying to get to a lock down unit, and can't give a logical explanation of why you are there, or who you are there to see. Dumby.