Locks on Bethel Doors: True?

by Room 215 23 Replies latest jw friends

  • Room 215
    Room 215

    Hi all,

    I recall that it's been mentioned in passing here on a few threads that there are locks on the Bethel rooms. This to me is significant, since when I was there in the sixties, there were none, and this wasa source of considerable pride in some circles.
    Can someone confirm, please?

    During my day, they caught one Bethel thief, a guy whose dad was a prominent circuit overseer who served in NYC at the time. His mom was college-educated and tutored the boy at home.

  • MikeMusto
    MikeMusto

    There are locks on just about every door at Bethel

  • Room 215
    Room 215

    Thanks Mike,

    Very sad; it has to be a big embarassment to them; it must have been a bitter pill for the GB when they were forced to take that vote.

  • Kismet
    Kismet

    Locked - Bethel Rooms
    Locked - All exterior doors except for lobby (during BUSINESS hours)
    Locked - Bethel Office
    Locked - Housekeeping stations
    Locked - Commissary
    Locked - Bethelite storage room
    Locked - Individual lockers within storage room
    Locked - Bicycle storage rooms
    Locked - All offices
    Locked - Bethel Family Library
    Locked - Most of their brains from deep thought

    The reasoning, in these last days critical times hard to deal with will behere. During these times we must be innocent as doves yet cautious as serpents. We don't want to make ourselves an easy target to those amoral people outside the faith.

    Yet it is interesting that most of the locks seem to be more to stop bethelites from getting into such places, not outsiders.

    Kismet

  • MikeMusto
    MikeMusto

    Interesting note:

    At the 360 building, nightwatchman are given an all access key
    which opens everydoor, for obvious reasons. Cleaning and security
    etc........this "Master Key" opens all doors..except one.
    This key will not open the office of Ralph Walls. Anyone who
    knows Br. Walls knows that he is a "given one". For
    some unkown reason this fellow slave of christ, one who is to
    consider others greater than he is never allowed anyone else in his
    office.

  • Room 215
    Room 215

    Thanks Kismet,

    Again, another specious rationalization with a decision that has to be an admission of defeat. After all, really, how easy is it for a stranger simply to wander into 124 Columbia Heights or any other Society property and walk out laden with swag?

  • NeonMadman
    NeonMadman

    Do the room doors lock from the inside, or only from the outside?

    [8>]

    Tom

    "Gentlemen, he said, I don't need your organization, I've shined your shoes, I've moved your mountains and marked your cards. But Eden is burning"
    --Bob Dylan
  • Room 215
    Room 215

    Once again Mike, thanks...

    The plot thickens; who is this mysterious Ralph Walls? He's new to me, and I thought I knew the names of the most influential ones up there.

  • Joyzabel
    Joyzabel

    Hi Room 215,

    I was a housekeeper in the towers on 1975 on the 2nd floor. We had keys to eveything as Kismet said. Especially in the Towers with <gasp> "worldy" people walking around.

    BTW, I got invited into Ralphs Walls office when hubby and I went back on a visit!. Ralph and hubby were newboys together back in the 60's. His wife, Virginia, and I took breaks together as she was a housekeeper on the 3rd floor along with Norma Sanchez. Too bad Virginia is the only one left now.

    Hugs,
    j2bf

    ps Kismet, lol the last lock took me awhile to get unlocked. doh!

    edited to add the ps

  • AngryXJW
    AngryXJW

    Ray Franz writes:

    "... at the international headquarters at Brooklyn, where the largest concentration of Witnesses on earth is found, it became necessary decades ago to install locks on all doors to living quarters and I can never recall a period of any length during my fifteen years there when there was not at least one Witness thief active within the 'Bethel family.' Periodic warnings were necessary from the head of the table as to leaving valuables unattended or unsecured." -- ISOCF, page 599.

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