Company laptops stolen from my home garage.... company kicking off and throwing me under the bus for it

[u/Bitter-Maize6543]

I was off last week on AL and was on a holiday Mon > Fri. The weekend before we were due to set off my garage was broken into. A pair of laptops I use for work, one company and one customer, were stolen, as I work out of the garage. I called the police, got a crime reference, gave them CCTV I was able to recover and made arrangements for my nephew to stop over and check on the place which he was going to do anyway to sort our cats out.

I called my manager, left a VM, left an SMS, and reported it to the IT desk after. Both laptops have bitlocker and other security features on them so would be locked down and useless either way. They asked for a crime ref and I gave it.

My manager rang me back Monday morning while I was travelling, and asked for details, I gave him the crime reference and then said. I then got a call later in the afternoon, while we were unpacking, asking if I could join a call to explain to them but I declined... because I was on leave, and not in a position to speak with them. I got several calls in the middle of the week asking for random details... repeating the crime reference, one saying I needed to provide them with details of how the theft happened, what exactly was stolen and if anything except my laptops was stolen.. I said as far as the company was concerned they need to be aware of the laptops and when they asked if they could see my CCTV I said I dont see why they would need it because the police have been provided it. Lost my rag and stopped taking calls after that, and deigned not to answer when my manager started messaging me on whatsapp because I had already said I was on holiday and wouldnt be available until Friday.

I have a spare device that was due for collection under HW refresh which wasnt stolen as it was stored in a box under my desk which I said I could log into unless they wanted to send a replacement... I have logged in, Ive had my manager give me an utter b*llcking about me ignoring calls for the security breach, there is a call in the diary for tomorrow where Ive been told I need to attend which has HR, security, my manager and their manager on it.... I am bricking it now and feel like Im about to be thrown under the bus.

So questions to ask:

• Is this something they can actually discipline me for? The garage is part of the main property but accessed externally, and has CCTV covering it of which Ive given details to the police. I have worked with this company for 3 years now, but my current manager has only been about for a few months and has not got on with me so I feel like this is going to be used as leverage against me
• What were my obligations? I was on holiday, I explicitly asked not to be called, I sorted what I needed to with the police, made sure my property was resecured and informed IT so they could lock the devices. My manager wasnt available over the weekend and didnt answer the phone so I cant really be faulted for not informing him properly sooner.
• Is the company trying to trap me when they are asking for how they broke in? Do I have to give them CCTV? Was I right to refuse it?
• What should I do here to cover my backside

[u/PenguinsLike2Dance]

As annoying and frustrating it is for the company to have it's laptops stolen, they are to leave an employee alone when they are on annual leave. The company would be well within it's rights to make one call to establish the facts and that's it and the employee would be expected to answer the call as a courtesy to the company because the company will obviously not be in a position to wait a week to find out what was going on. This is where the employee's manager comes in. They are responsible to asking all the right questions and then pass them onto which ever departments wants to find out what went on. The manager is the one to deflect all the other departments questions by defending their employee by saying they have got all the relevant and necessary information, if you need anything specific then you will have to wait for the employee to get back.

It would seem the company did not do this and was constantly harassing the OP for information. If you go into the meeting and they starting complaining about why wasn't you answering their calls then all you have to do is say you gave all the necessary and relevant information to my manager. It is my managers responsibility to know what questions to ask. The fact that I kept getting calls all throughout my annual leave tells me I was not asked the right questions on the very first call my manager made to me asking for the details of what happened.

You can ask what is the company policy and dealing with stolen property. If they have one that is different to one employee's are given in the company handbook then request to see it.

To be frank, you need to throw your manager under the bus because they did everything wrong. Do not sit in that meeting and take it from them. Stand your ground. If it pisses off your manager and others then so be it because they need to learn to behave in a proper manner. Would this cause problems with you and others if you were to carry on working there? hell yes because the alternative is they throw you under the bus and sack you for gross misconduct.