This IT manager works at a manufacturing plant where, he says, friendship is thicker than employment.

"Management has often suspected some of the good ol' boys clocking in their buddies who routinely come in late," he reports. "The union contract specifically stated no surveillance systems are allowed, and management couldn't prove anything until the day one of the gang called in sick shortly after his shift started -- but he was already clocked in!"

Plant boss is at his wits' end. But the manager gets an idea. He's already made friends with one of the plant's more popular workers, who likes to tinker with computers, and fish thinks the guy might be willing to help.

"I was happy to give him obsolete equipment and help him with computer problems, so we'd built a nice rapport," he says. "And he was an honest fellow -- in fact, he was quite upset that the others were stealing from the company.

"So the morning after a long holiday weekend, he went out and stood by the time clock with a laptop and looked up at a dark area of the ceiling 45 feet high. Then he looked at the screen and hit some random keys.

"He did this a few times until he made sure some of the workers noticed him out there, and then went back into the office.

A little while later, the manager sends the worker out to stand by the clock and wave his hand at the ceiling. After a minute or two, he comes out of the office and tells him, "That's great, thanks."

It's not long before other shop workers ask their co-worker what he was doing. "He just replied, 'Oh, nothing,' with a big grin," the manager says. "They said, 'They put in a camera system, didn't they?' to which the worker just replied, 'I don't know what you're talking about.'

"Rumors of a surveillance system spread like wildfire. The union obviously couldn't prove that a camera system was installed, because there never was one.

"And the good ol' boys stopped clocking in their buddies -- because now they thought they'd get caught for sure."