Hennepin County officials charged Minnesota Timberwolves employee Somak Sarkar with third-degree burglary after he allegedly stole a hard drive from the team’s executive vice president, CBS News reported.
The complaint states that the Timberwolves executive vice president (EVP) left his laptop in the team’s Minnesota office Feb. 2, and when he returned to the office the next Monday, it was gone, according to CBS.
Surveillance video shows Sarkar entering the EVP’s office Feb. 3, investigators reportedly said. Sarkar claimed he took it “to put some stuff on it” but forgot to return it, a complaint says, according to CBS.
The criminal complaint only names the alleged theft victim as S.G., but the Timberwolves’ executive vice president is Sachin Gupta.
The team, upon finding out Sarkar allegedly took the laptop, ordered an analysis of both the hard drive and Sarkar’s personal laptop, CBS reported. The analysis found Sarkar allegedly used his personal laptop to download over 5,000 files to another device, according to CBS.
Police arrested Sarkar on Monday after searching his home and finding the alleged stolen files on a separate device, according to CBS. (RELATED: Bizarre Clip Shows NBA Star Playing Shut Down Defense … On His Own Teammate)
Sarkar previously worked under Gupta but was moved to the coaching staff in August “due to job performance,” CBS News reported.
The lesson here is, if someone sucks at their job, don’t shuffle them around the organization. Just fire them. He gets moved off of Gupta’s team, allegedly due to job performance, and then six months later he allegedly enacts his revenge. Amongst the files in the hard drive were the EVP’s social security number as well as sensitive financial documents, investigators said, per CBS.
I know in today’s age of coddling literally everybody, it’s very difficult to fire someone without cause. But someone sucking at their job … that’s great cause. Instead, they probably moved this guy into a role where he had almost no responsibility in a wildly embarrassing move. I’m not defending Sarkar’s alleged actions at all, but the T-wolves should have seen this coming.